The Carried
by Ax
Summary: This is the sequel to The Contact. After meeting the colony of Mercora, the Animorphs must deal with them and their strange relationship with the Yeerks, Iskoort, Andalites, and Garatron. Then the Animorphs must fight the One. Please R/R! *Finished*
1. Tobias

Disclaimer: Just like I said in The Contact, I don't own Animorphs.  Please don't sue me!  Although Christmas is coming up, and it would be a nice present! * Smiles sweetly *

A/N: This is the sequel to my story The Contact.  You will not understand this if you did not read that.  This is the second story in the trilogy The Continued, and is a continuation of #54.  Yeah!  Anyway, after you finish, make sure to fill in that little magic box at the bottom of the page. J

The Carried

            My name is Tobias.

            And I just identified creatures that have supposedly been extinct for sixty-five million years as being alive.

            Maybe I should back up and explain.  

            Six years ago, a dying Andalite prince landed on earth and gave me and two of my friends a powerful weapon to fight the Yeerks, a parasitic alien that burrows into your ear and takes over your body, which was the power to morph.  At the time, the Yeerks were trying to take over earth, but of course, you know that.  While we fought, we found Ax, the little brother of the Andalite prince, and somehow because of some very strange circumstances, my uncle.  After three years of fighting, we managed to defeat the Yeerks, with a small amount of help from the Andalites.  However, in the final battle, Rachel Berenson, my girlfriend, was killed.  I lived in solitude for three years after that, grieving for her.  Six months ago, we, being me, Jake, who is the leader of the Animorphs, as we call ourselves, Marco, who is Jake's best friend and another Animorph, and Cassie, who was Jake's girlfriend during the war and the final one of the six Animorphs, learned that Ax had been captured.  Jake, Marco, and I went to go save him with three other people, but we left Cassie behind.  Cassie became afraid, and thinking that we would need her help, she followed us with three others.  Right before leaving earth's solar system, a meteor hit their ship, causing an explosion that sent them backwards in time three years.  While there, Cassie managed to save Rachel and Tom, Jake's brother, before returning to this time.  To make a long story short, she saved us and Ax, and since then we have been on the run from the _Kelbrid_, a species that has a treaty with the Andalites that makes it illegal for one of the species' members or technology to go into the other's galaxy.  After they destroyed our ships, we bought a new one that had been found dead in space.  When we were looking in the cargo hold, we found holding tanks for the frozen bodies of many Mercora, a species we thought died sixty-five million years ago at the same time that the dinosaurs did.

            And that is how I came to see creatures that have been supposedly extinct for sixty-five million years.

            Mercora?!  But that's impossible! exclaimed Ax.

            No, I told him.  Look at them.  Hundreds of eyes.  Flat.  Brightly colored.  Large.  Have a claw.  They are most definitely Mercora.

            Cassie started across the large storage space to look into the tanks holding the aliens.  She touched her hands to the glass-like substance, but then pulled them away and started rubbing them vigorously.  She brought her eye close to the tank and looked in, squinting against the vapors surrounding the animal.  She stepped back in shock.  "Tobias is right," she said, "It is them.  Slightly different, but still recognizable as Mercora."

            Unless they have been frozen like this for millions of years, Ax stubbornly protested, It is physically impossible for an advanced, sentient creature to remain unchanged so as to be still recognizable after sixty-five million earth years.

            Go on up and take a look for yourself, Ax-man, I told him.

            Ax galloped toward the tanks, and peered inside.  His shoulders sagged.

            "See?  Don't disbelieve Tobias with his super-hawk-vision!" Rachel laughed.  

            "I wonder what they're doing in here," Cassie pondered.

            "Ax, could we unfreeze them?" asked Jake.

            I believe it would be possible, Ax replied.  We still need to learn how to work the controls of this ship first, though.

            Jake said, "I think we should probably go tell Marco and the others what we found, what do you guys think?"

            One by one, we all agreed.  The five of us rushed back to the bridge, where Menderash and Yahal were still fiddling with the computer.  Marco was talking to Sandra, and Jeanne was nowhere to be found.  I guessed that she was in Tom's room, making sure he was all right. Santorelli and General Doubleday were both laughing about some joke the General had just told.  Toby was standing aloof, staring off into space.  She missed her own people, the Hork-Bajir.

            "Hey, Marco, guess what we just found in the storage hold?" Jake asked, half joking and half stressed.

            "Umm… those little peanut packets they give you on plains?  Boxes and boxes of those?  Those might actually be better than those horrible preserved things they call food on the ship…"

            "Remember the Mercora?"

            "Yeah… What about them?  Did we just find a colony of them?  I refuse to eat any broccoli.  They can't make me!" Marco joked.

            Cassie said, "Umm… Actually, we did find some Mercora…"

            "What?!"  Marco nearly fell over.  "Dude!  Those things have been extinct for over sixty-five million years!  What's with that?"

            Just then Jeanne and Tom walked in, Tom looking completely normal, except for a bit tired.

            "Tom?" Jake asked, uncertain.  "Why are you standing up?"

            "Oh, I just morphed and demorphed.  Healthy DNA here, it was only my body that was hurt."

            Jake smiled.  "Great!  You're feeling better then?"

            "Just a bit tired.  Besides that, never better!"

            There was another moment of silence, but then Sandra finally broke it.  "Okay… What are the Mercora?"

            Marco jumped at the chance to show off his knowledge to his latest crush.  "Well, once we got transported back through time sixty-five million years, in the same way Cassie was taken back when she saved Rachel and Tom.  Anyway, while we were there, we met these aliens that used to live on this planet, because theirs was destroyed when a black hole drew in their sun.  These aliens were called the Mercora, and were pretty decent guys, except for the fact that they introduced broccoli to earth.  They tried to help us come back to our time, but then took the explosive we were going to use so they could destroy the comet that was about to hit earth right on their colony.  We gave them the explosive, but we had to make it useless first…"  His voice trailed off for a moment.  "If the comet had not hit, humans would not have evolved and dinosaurs would still rule the earth.  We had to let the comet come.  The impact of the comet on earth closed the _Sario Rip_ and allowed us to come back home.  Their legacy lives on though: my mom still makes me eat broccoli."  He made a face, and Sandra gave a quiet giggle at his joke, although the situation was serious.

            Yahal cut in.  We believe we now know how to use the controls.  Shall we lift off?

            Jake nodded yes, and there was a tremor through the ground as the engine pods turned on, and then we were in the sky.  Acceleration was fast, and we were in space before we even realized it.  We were all still tired, and decided to sleep and deal with the Mercora in the morning.  Wanting to speak with Rachel before I went to sleep, I morphed human and followed her to her room.  However, when I got there, I was surprised to find Cassie already sitting near Rachel whispering excitedly.  She held out her right hand, and Rachel looked at something on Cassie's finger.  They both gave excited squeals, and then Cassie got up and left the room.

            On her way out, she passed me, and with a bright smile on her face, told me that she thought Rachel would want to talk to me.  I went into Rachel's room, where she looked up surprised, but then invited me to sit down.

            "Guess what!" she exclaimed.  "Jake proposed to Cassie only a few hours ago!"

            I put a smile onto my human face.  I had to consciously think about doing it.  I really was not used to human facial expressions anymore.  "That's great!" I said, with much more enthusiasm than my face showed.  For the next two hours, we talked about everything, from Cassie and Jake's engagement to wondering if another hawk had taken my meadow back on earth.  I was so glad that Rachel was back.

            "I love you," I told her.


	2. Rachel

A/N: I don't know, but I think that the story may be a bit slow starting out.  I promise, though, that it will get better!

Also, thank you to Chava for telling me about my little "ASU."

Chapter 2

            The next morning, we all stood in the bridge, discussing if unfreezing the Mercora was such a great idea.  The Mercora we met sixty-five million years ago were friendly, but we also thought that it these ones might be subtly different, and possibly hostile, because of years of evolution.

            "You know," Marco said, "I've been thinking-"

            I cut him off.  "Always dangerous," I joked.

            He glared at me, and then started again.  "As I was saying, I've been thinking, and it's really not our problem about the Mercora.  We know how to work the ship, so why would we need to wake them up?  Why risk what we have when, frankly, these guys could kill us!  You saw those three-way claws; they're not exactly weak."

            I agree with Marco, Ax stated.

            "Come on, you guys!" I complained.  "They're just big crabs!  If they try anything, we can just bake them and serve them with butter!  It would be no big deal.  We can take them, easily."

            "I think we should unfreeze them, but for a different reason," Cassie said quietly.  "They may know something that we don't, that might help us get away from the Garatron and the One.  They could be useful."

            Jake gave her a small smile, which I don't think anybody was supposed to notice.  "I would go with Cassie's senses anytime.  After all, they are the reason that all of us are standing here right now.  I vote to unfreeze them."

            Sandra spoke up.  "I would like to meet these Mercora."

            I grinned.  One more person supported me.  "Yahal?  Menderash?"

            "These Mercora look dangerous.  I say we do not unfreeze them," said Menderash.

            I think that they could be helpful, and I agree with Rachel.  If they are not, we can take care of them, replied Yahal.  

            Jeanne said, "I agree with Cassie, Rachel, and Jake."

            "Sorry, Jake, but I just want to go home.  I say we leave them as is," commented Tom.  I gave my cousin a dirty look.  

            Jake smiled.  "It's okay.  What do you vote, Santorelli, General Doubleday, Toby?"

            "I have no opinion.  I just want to get back to my people," Toby said quietly.

            Santorelli and General Doubleday looked at each other, and then Santorelli nodded, and the General spoke.  "We both think that it would be too dangerous to bring them to consciousness.  They look dangerous, and we have no way of knowing if they will be kind like the ones that you met on earth."

            I looked at Tobias, who had been quiet during the entire discussion.  He was picking through his feathers and straightening them, something he does occasionally when he is bothered.

            "Tobias?" I asked.  "What is your vote?"

            He looked up, his fierce hawk eyes staring at us.  I think that it is our fault that they became extinct sixty-five million years ago.  It is my fault.  I told Ax to rig that explosive.  I still felt horrible about it though.  I would do anything to bring them back to life and let humans live as well.  I vote that we unfreeze them.

            Jake thought for a moment, then said, "Well, I guess it's final, that's seven for, six against.  Ax, can you figure out how to work the freezers?"

            Yes, Prince Jake, he replied.  It may take a while, because these controls are so ancient.

            "Then can we just do whatever now, Oh Fearless Leader?"  Marco asked with a quick look at Sandra.

            "Yeah, sure, whatever," he replied.  He gave a sheepish grin.  "Let's just hope that the Garatron don't show up in the meantime."

            Everybody gave a nervous laugh.  Slowly, everybody started to walk to their own areas, Tom and Jeanne together, Sandra and Marco walking as a pair, Cassie and Jake holding hands, Toby brooding by herself, Santorelli, General Doubleday, Yahal, and Menderash having an animated debate over what the finest aspects of human civilization were, and Ax remained at the main computer working on learning how to defrost the Mercora.  Tobias morphed human, smiled, and took my hand.  I turned to him, excited.

            "So what do you think these Mercora will be like?"

            Tobias looked thoughtful for a moment, and then answered.  "I really don't know.  It's been sixty-five million years since we met the other Mercora, and that's a heck of a long time for these ones to evolve into something new.  I'm surprised that they are recognizable.  They had however long after the Mercora from earth left their own planet too.  It's just strange."

            I nodded my agreement.  "In the time that we last saw the Mercora, humans evolved from little marsupial rats.  I don't understand how the crabs could look the same…  I think there are some species on earth that have stayed the same for millions of years, but that was because they were perfectly suited to their environment or something, and they are usually lower animals…  Cockroaches, horseshoe crabs, that kind of thing.  I don't know though; you would have to talk to Cassie about it.  She's our animal expert.  But it just doesn't make sense.  We can take them though.  If they try anything, we can take care of them."  I smiled in anticipation of meeting the aliens, feeling cocky because I knew that we would be safe.  "I wonder where their colony is, if there is a colony."

            "I don't know," said Tobias.

            There was a short silence, but I finally blurted out what I had been wondering.  "Tobias, why have you stayed as a bird?  I understand using it to escape the pain, even though you should have just gotten over it, but why did you stay after going aboard the _Rachel_?  It was probably more trouble than it was worth to try and get around the ship with wings.  It would have been so easy for you to just become human."

            He looked away for a moment, and then looked at me and began to quietly speak.  "I promised you that I would look after you so many times…  I didn't though.  I let you die.  You had been the only thing keeping me human.  When you were gone, I promised myself that I would never become human again, because I had let you down.  I was too upset, anyway.  I finally went human right before I thought our ship was going to hit the Blade ship though, because I wanted to die as a human, what my mind was.  But I didn't die.  And you came."  He smiled, although it was strange on his face, as always.

            I smiled back at him.  He took my hand.  "I can't wait to get home," I told him.  "I haven't seen Mom and Dad and Jordan and Sara for months now.  They haven't seen me in years.  I haven't seen Dad since we had to go into hiding…"  I wiped a tear from my eye.  "Do you even think Sara will really remember me?  She was so young when I died…  And it's been years."

            "No one could ever forget you, Rachel,"  Tobias said to me.  "Even if she has, I know that she would have heard plenty about you from the rest of the world to keep the memories alive."

            "Thank you," I told him.  "Thanks."  I gave him a hug.

            Everybody, Ax's voice echoed through the ship, I believe that I found out how to defrost the Mercora.

            I heard a clatter as everyone started toward the bridge, where Ax was.  Tobias and I stood up, and followed them.


	3. Cassie

A/N:  I would like to thank Shawna (Ami of Destiny) for giving me the name Miaker.  Thank you!!!

Chapter 3

            After Jake and I heard Ax's thoughtspeech, we stood up and started toward the bridge.  We had been talking about everything, as well as doing some very preliminary planning for our wedding.  I had not been able to stop smiling.

            We entered onto the bridge and saw Sandra, Marco, Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, General Doubleday, Yahal, Ax, and Menderash already there.  A few moments later, Toby walked in followed by Tobias and Rachel.

            I believe that I have learned how to unfreeze the Mercora.  However, I do not know because these controls are so ancient and different, Ax announced.

            "Just go ahead and try," Jake said.

            Using a mixture of both thoughtspeak and typing instructions on control pads, Ax gave a series of instructions.  We all heard a clicking noise and a whoosh of air, and a green light started blinking on the control pad.  Ax looked at us.

            It worked.  They have started to come out of their frozen states, said Ax.

            "Rachel, Marco, will both of you please morph something that can do something if these Mercora turn out to be not very nice?  And Toby, Yahal, and Ax, will you please stand at the front?" Jake asked.

            I watched as shaggy brown fur sprouted from Rachel's shoulders that were growing broader by the minute.  Her face was still human, thought, when her teeth grew long and sharp.  She looked like a strange vampire.  Then, her face bulged outwards, she fell forward to all fours, and wicked claws grew from her toes and fingers.  After a minute or so, she completed the morph.

            The first thing to happen to Marco was that his arms grew long and his knuckles dragged against the floor.  Then his spine curved, causing him to hunch over.  His stomach and chest grew thick, muscled, and rubbery.  His mouth sprouted outward and hair finally began to grow.  I'm finished, he said after a few more minutes.  

            He and Rachel moved toward the front of the hall, near where Ax, Yahal, and Toby were standing.  We waited.

            And waited.

            And waited.

            Marco finally turned to Ax.  Ax-man, you're sure that this is working?  It's taking forever!

            It should be Marco.  The computer files tell me that there are close to two hundred Mercora in there, so it is understandable that it is taking a while.

            We stood in tense silence.  No one said anything, all too busy wondering what was to happen.  The mist inside the holding tanks started to filter out of the cages and dissipate into the normal air.  Slowly, so slowly.  Marco clenched and unclenched his gorilla hands, and Tom's hand found Jeanne's hand.  Jake turned to me and hugged me.  Tobias looked at Rachel's grizzly bear morph.  Sandra moved to be right behind Marco.

            Slowly.

            At long last, Tobias shouted out.  Whoa!

            What?  What was it?  Rachel demanded.

            That big one in front's eye opened for a moment, and then it closed again, I think, Tobias said.

            Which eye? asked Marco.

            We grinned, but it was still slightly forced.  Then, it was my turn to gasp.  "I saw it too," I said.  "It did it again."

            We stared patiently at the Mercora, until finally the one that had been opening various eyes twitched its claw.  All of its eyes opened at once, and then closed again.  Its movements finally became regular, and looked like the Mercora I remembered.  A door opened in the tank, and slowly, the Mercora sidestepped out.

            Who are you, and what are you doing on my ship? he asked.

            Your ship? Marco questioned stupidly.

            "Your ship?" the rest of us repeated.

            My ship, said the Mercora.  I am its captain, and these are the last of my species, he said, using his two arms to gesture the rest of the Mercora.

            "Well," Jake began, "I am Captain Kirk, and we were on a peaceful reconnaissance mission for the United Confederation of Planets, when some aliens shot us out of the air, and after we landed on another planet, destroyed our ship the Enterprise.  We bought this ship, thinking it had been found dead in space.  Then we found you in here."

            One by one, the other Mercora were starting to wake up and scuttle out behind their leader.

            "We have met another colony of you before, on another planet far away, when we accidentally opened a rip in the time-space continuum and were sent sixty-five million years back in time.  The Mercora of that time were very helpful to us, and so we thought that you may be the same and so we decided to defrost you.  Please forgive us for any inconvenience that it might have caused."  Jake kept a neutral expression, not wanting to sound overly wimpy or strong.  "Now who are you?"

            I am Miaker, answered the captain of the Mercora.  Where did you meet with us before?  There are no records of any of our ancestors ever meeting with anything like you.  You, on the other hand," he said, turning to Yahal and Ax, We have met before, I believe.  Or at least your ancestors.  Now, where are you trying to go?  And why do you speak in sound?  It is strange.

            "We wish to return to our planet earth in the Milky Way galaxy.  We are on our way there, and I believe that we are finally in our own galaxy now, aren't we, Ax?  We have been traveling through Zero-Space, but we returned to normal space a few moments before unfreezing you.  Marco, Rachel, I think you can demorph now."

            Rachel and Marco demorphed, and the Mercora gawked.  What technology is that? he asked, astounded.  You can shift form!

            Morphing technology, Ax replied quickly.  Pride of the Andalites.

            "Now, Captain Miaker, do you think you could please tell us how you came here?  The other Mercora we met said that they were the last of their species, yet here you are."

            It's a long story, said Captain Miaker, But if you are willing to listen, I will gladly tell it.

            "Humor us," said Jake.  I smiled at him, and the Mercora began.

A/N:  Hehehe, did you like it?  Of course you liked it, it was written by ME!!!  Now review it to be nice.  Oh, and just warning you, but because I, the wonderful-est, marvelous-est, graddest (lol, Kaitlyn!), and one-and-onliest Ax have turned fifteen, I now have a driver's permit!!!!  BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  BEWARE!!!!  Yeah, so, if you're ever outside and see a short blonde girl come barreling down the road in the driver's seat, with an older short guy with grayish-white hair or a woman that looks like the girl in thirty years holding on for dear life in the passenger's seat, DUCK AND COVER!!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  =)


	4. Marco

A/N:  This chapter may sound a bit familiar….

Chapter 4

Sixty-five million years ago, the sun of our home planet was drawn into a black hole and destroyed, destroying our planet.  We managed to escape, but I do not know if any other Murkra were able to.  For thirty generations now, we have unfrozen ourselves for one year every one hundred years, waiting for the time when we would find a planet suitable to our needs.  We have never found one, so we remain frozen for most of the time. said the leader of the Mercora, or Murkra as they seemed to call themselves.

            "Hmm," I said.  "So it seems that we stole your ship."

            "Quiet, Marco," Jake warned.

            "What?" I asked.  "It's only fair that we give it back."

            Rachel looked at me, already realizing that there must be more to what I was saying than I was letting on.  "Why would we give it back, Marco?"

            "It would be good manners!" I exclaimed, not wanting the Mercora to hear.  "My mommy always told me to mind my P's and Q's.  I'm a good little boy!"

            Rachel rolled her eyes, and Sandra laughed.  She had a beautiful laugh, musical and light-hearted, but still loud and hearty; she was not afraid to show that she appreciated a good joke.  Unlike some other people, such as Rachel.  I gave a snort of disgust.

            We would be willing to take you to your planet, as long as we can have our ship back afterwards, the leader said.

            "Well, sure, we woul-" Jake started to say, but I cut him off.

            "NO!  I mean, thank you very much, but I'm sure we could make it back by ourselves," I blurted out.

            Jake gave me a very strange and searching look, but Tobias fluttered his wings and privately told me that her understood.  Then, he spoke to all of us, not including the Mercora.

            We cannot allow the Mercora to see earth, because if that other colony liked it sixty-five million years ago, and there are still some areas with the same climate and types of plants as there were then, of which there are, then they may want to stay.  And I know that some humans will not be very partial to that.  And in case you haven't noticed, but they have some serious weaponry here, unlike our other buddies that died sixty-five million years ago.  Humans were already nearly wiped out by the Yeerks, and we don't need the same to happen because of the Mercora.  
            Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Ax, Sandra, Tom, Santorelli, Jeanne, Yahal, Menderash, General Doubleday, and Toby stared at him.

            Act normal, Tobias said.  They can't know.

            Suddenly, the ground below our feet shook, and things started falling off the walls.  Looking at the view port, I saw the Garatron ship.

            "Oh, man!" I complained.  "I am really getting sick of those guys.  They just don't know when to hold their fire!"

            Captain Barvaritun Larumian Hartar's ugly face filled the communications screen.  As soon as he saw the Mercora leader standing with us, his face twisted an expression of pure hatred.  Murkra, he said in a low, menacing voice.

            The leader had taken on a similar expression, although it was hard to tell because of his strange feature.  Garatron, he said equally menacing.

            Blowthemoutoftheair! Baravaritun Larumian Hartar ordered.  IwantridoftheseMurkraonceandforall.

            There was another blast, and we hurtled toward another unknown planet.


	5. Jake

Chapter 5

            The planet was mostly barren, but there were deep valleys, which were obviously filled with rich plant life.  However, it looked as though something had hurt the land, for there were scorch marks and fallen trees everywhere.  The trees were humongous.  

We hurtled downwards at an amazing rate.  I held onto Cassie tightly.  The Garatron's antics of shooting at us were getting old fast.

The Garatron/_Kelbrid_ have come into Andalite territory, Ax announced.  Menderash glared at the rapidly receding Garatron ship behind us.

I looked forward.  We had started burning through the thin atmosphere, and details were coming more clearly into focus.  At the bottom of the valleys, I saw a poisonous purple mist.  Cassie looked at me, her eyes wide.  We came even closer, and I could tell that we were going to land in one of the valleys.  

Ax, Yahal, and Menderash were feverishly trying to control the ship as it hurtled through the air.  We were at treetop level when they finally managed to slow the ship down enough for a controlled landing.  We zipped through the thousand-foot-tall trees, and Ax finally brought us to a stop on a somewhat level area of the valley.  Below us were nearly-healed over scorch marks.  We were concealed by the ridiculously large trees and the strange atmosphere that was so much thicker in the valley than it was on the barren waste of the surface of the planet.

Is my ship damaged badly? Miaker demanded.

I do not know, Ax replied.  We will need to look it over.

"Wait a second," I interrupted.  "Just hold on for one second.  Captain Miaker, how do you know the Garatron?"  Both Marco and I were staring daggers at the captain of the remaining Murkra.  

I was angry.  It seemed to me that the Murkra knew the Garatron, and they disliked them, which was causing the

Garatron to chase us even more, delaying our return to earth.  My return to normal life.

Miaker turned to face me.  Yes, he said, We do know the Garatron.

At this, all of us became deathly silent, daring him to say more.

Each year out of a century that we came out of our frozen state, we stopped on various planets to see if they would support us very well.  None that we found did, but if we liked the creatures we found on that planet, we would take a few onto the ship with us, to live with us when we finally did settle down.  The creatures that eventually became the Garatron, as well as some other parasitic species, were brought onto our ship as pets.

First Ax, Yahal, and Menderash started glaring at him, and then the rest of us looked at him in shock.

Where exactly did you find the ancestors of the Garatron? asked Ax menacingly.  Yahal's tail was twitching, as though he might jump Captain Miaker at any moment.

You must understand that this was many tens of thousands of years ago, Miaker said desperately.  The Garatron's ancestors were not exactly as they are now!  They were shaggy, slightly smaller, and had just started using thoughtspeak.  They barely thought!

Throughout this, Ax, Yahal, and Menderash were becoming more and more stiff, and Menderash's face was coloring bright red.

"Where did you find the ancestors of the Garatron?" asked Menderash slowly and angrily.  His hands were clenching and unclenching, over and over again.

Captain Miaker made a small chittering noise, which I took for a sign of worry.  Where are we?

Yahal answered him.  We are on a planet in the Milky Way galaxy, in the same arm as earth and the Andalite homeworld.  You may look at the star charts.

Miaker put his fingers on a computer console, gave some commands mentally, and a small holograph of the galaxy came up.  The Murkra captain looked at it for a moment, and finally pointed at a star near, or at least in galactic terms, the one that was circled, meaning the star we were around.

Ax froze for a moment, and then whipped his tail around and stilled it only millimeters away from what I could only presume was a crucial point in the Murkra's anatomy.

"Wait!  Ax!  What are you doing?" I yelled, confused, trying to make sense of all of the Andalites' anger.  I had suspicions, but I did not know for sure.

His voice quivering in fury, Ax replied, That star is the sun of the Andalite homeworld.  These filthy crabs stole Andalites off of their own world and forced them to become the _Kelbrid_!  Ax was nearly screaming.

Evenly, I asked the Murkra one last question.  "Captain Miaker, what about the parasitic slugs?  Where were they from.?"

He pointed to another star, and Menderash's red face drained of all color.  Ax's tail started to twitch, and Captain Miaker froze, trying to stay in one piece.

"Which star is that?"

No one answered.

"Which star?"  I was getting frustrated.

Finally, Yahal answered me.  That is the sun of the Yeerk homeworld.

"Wait, so you're saying the Murkra were the people who brought the ancient Andalites and the ancient Yeerks over to that other galaxy and created the Garatron and the Iskoort?"  Marco asked.

Ax looked at us and nodded, but it was unsettling as always because his stalk eyes stayed in place.

Miaker then said nervously, We did not mean to do harm when we took them, we only meant to have pets.

Ax, Yahal, and Menderash's attentions had gone back to the captain of the Murkra, and they were glaring at him even more, if that was possible.

"You took a thinking, sentient Andalite ancestor for a pet?" Menderash nearly shrieked.

Yes, Miaker said softly, And we are sorry.  But when we took the two hundred or so herd animals, we thought it would be good.  We made a small environment for them in one area of the ship, but we destroyed it long ago.  After a few thousand years, while we were frozen for most of the time but let them live normally, they evolved, and became smarter, faster, and more aggressive.  The stories of their homeland became fables as the story was told through the generations, and they eventually came to hate us for taking them away from what they had come to perceive as a paradise.  About one thousand, five hundred years ago, when we unfroze ourselves for our one year out of a century, they turned against our forefathers.  They slaughtered almost half of us, and forced us to free them on the first planet that supported their life.  When they left us, they also freed the other aliens we had taken, namely the parasites, and gave them their own planet.  Ever since then, our two races, the Garatron and the Murkra, have been at war.  We have barely seen them, but they pass down our descriptions in their stories.  That is why they want to destroy us.  They think that we removed them from paradise.

Ax, still angry, managed to say, You took ancient Andalites from their homeworld, and forced them to become a new species from what they would have become.  You deserved it.

We are sorry, the captain said, and then the voices of the other Murkra joined his in apology.  The captain continued.  It was not our fault, it was our so-many-greats-grandparents.  They were the ones that first took the Garatron's ancestors.

When Seerow gave the power to travel the galaxy to the Yeerks, it was not the rest of the Andalite race's fault, yet we tried to destroy them anyway.  It is your responsibility to fix the errors of your ancestors, otherwise nothing is ever accomplished,  Yahal stated philosophically.

Defensively, Captain Miaker replied, "They were happy on their new planet.  They had a large empire."

And they are now at war with their close cousins the Andalites.

I felt as though I were just watching a scene in a movie, and the Andalites, Menderash, and the Murkra were the only actors in the video.  It was a fight in which the humans had no business.  Looking at my other human friends, and Toby, I could tell that they felt the same way.

I truly thought that Ax's tail was going to chop Miaker into two pieces.  Yahal, Ax, and Menderash were murderous about what the Murkra's ancestors had done to their own ancestors.

"Wait, Ax, stay calm," I cautioned.

Ax was so tense that he jumped and a thin line of purplish-blue blood appeared on Captain Miaker's back.  He was trembling.

"Ax!  Ax, Yahal, Menderash, look, Captain Miaker can't help what his ancestors did."

Now the Andalites were giving me death-stares.

I think we have visitors, cautioned Tobias.

I looked in the direction he was looking, and saw four horned goblins approaching through the trees.  I turned back to the fight.  "Ax, Yahal, Menderash, look around you.  There are hundreds of other Murkra.  The ship has weapons.  We do not want them mad at us.  And so far, they have not done us any harm.  And there are other aliens coming.  Please calm down."

To my relief, Ax moved his tail, but still kept it ready.  The small dinosaur-looking things swung closer, and we waited.  They finally became recognizable, and came onto the ground a few yards away, trying to hide.  They were Hork-Bajir.

Toby stood up straight, excited, and then moved toward her fellow Hork-Bajir.  At first they cringed, but seeing that she meant no harm, they came forward.

In a mix of English, Hork-Bajir, and _Galard_, Toby pronounced us friends.

The new Hork-Bajir said something back to her, and she nodded.

"Remember," she said, "When the last of the Arn came to earth to get DNA samples of the free Hork-Bajir in order to create Hork-Bajir to fight the Yeerks?"

We nodded, and Cassie placed her small hand in mine.  When the Arn had come, Cassie had carried the _ixcila_ of Aldrea, an Andalite _nothlit_ trapped as a Hork-Bajir that helped fight the Yeerks, inside her own head.  All of us, the Animorphs, came with the Arn and Toby to the Hork-Bajir homeworld to find where Aldrea had stashed a spaceship and weapons to help fight.

 Toby continued.  "Well, this is the Hork-Bajir homeworld.  One," she gestured at the oldest alien, "Is the mixture of a few of my people on earth.  This other one," she said, gesturing at another, "Was a controller, but was freed by the fighters here.  The other two are children of both the Hork-Bajir created from the DNA of my people on earth and freed Hork-Bajir.  The Arn was successful.  My people are thriving here!"

She turned around, exuberant.  All of the humans were smiling back at her.  The Murkra looked lost, but did the equivilent of a Murkra smile anyway.  Even the Andalites and Menderash managed to loosen up a bit and smile.  It was one of those moments where everything was still, everything was perfect.  I even managed to forget, just for a moment, everything that had happened in the past three and a half years.  It was so calm.

However, then all of us except for Toby saw something that made our blood run cold.  Our smiles slowly fell.  Toby looked at us, confused.  It made perfect sense to her, though, when she turned around and followed our gazes to about a mile away in the valley where you could just see the top of the Garatron ship descending into the trees.

Suddenly, I heard a loud wheezing noise behind us, and I whipped myself around to see what was there, hoping it wasn't a Garatron.  Standing behind us, looking uncertain and confused as to our surroundings, was Guide, the Iskoort.

"Guide!  What are you doing here?!" I demanded, baffled.

I…  I stayed on the ship after the humans, Andalite, and other creature left so I could make sure that it was alright.  The Iskoort we bought it from belong to a guild known for deceit.  I was trying to make sure it was okay! he exclaimed.

I shook my head, trying to clear it and get rid of the headache starting to come strong.  "So then why are you still on it?  We bought it almost a day ago."

I was about to leave, but I heard loud noises and thought it was Iskoot from the Warmaker Guild coming to ruin the ship, so I hid.  Then I felt the engine start, and so I've been hiding ever since then.  I thought they would hurt me!  But the engines stopped a bit ago, so I came out and found you.  Where are we?

I sighed, consigned to the fact that we were going to have to keep Guide with us, along with me, nine other humans, two Andalites, one hawk, and one Hork-Bajir.  Not to mention a few hundred Murkra.  "Great.  Just great.  Alright, Guide?  You can stay with us, but you have to listen to us.  We're still on the run from those Garatron, and we don't know how we're going to get back home, much less get you home.  Okay?"

Guide answered.  "Yes, I can do that.  And anyway, you still haven't paid me your memories for finding you everything yet.  He did a Iskoort grin.

A/N:  Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, everybody lucky enough to be reading this!  (Also, happy Hanukah, Kwanzaa, and any other holiday you may be celebrating right now!)  Well, okay, it's not Christmas, it's three days afterwards, but this is the first time I've worked on this since last Saturday or Sunday.  I'm really sorry it's taking so long to get these chapters up, even though they are finished, but we went on vacation to the middle of nowhere for break, meaning *cries* no internet access!  *Starts sobbing uncontrollably, rolling on the floor kicking, and screaming, "NOOO!!!  I NEED MY FANFICTION.NET!!!!!!!!!!  MUST HAVE FANFICTION.NET!!!!!!" (Hehehe, I suffer from withdrawal without my wonderful website… and my wonderful email… and my wonderful instant messenger…  Oh well, I'm having fun out here and it's probably good for me… and since we're close to the Mexico-U.S.A. border, I get to practice my Spanish whenever we cross over the Rio Grande.  Wouldn't my baka onna no inu of a Spanish teacher be proud!)*  Yeah, anyway… ^_^  Well, I'm hoping we are going to stay at a campsite with internet access, and I can catch either Emily, Shawna, or Ami online so I can ask them a quick question and then post chapters three, four, and five!  (And maybe chapters six, seven, eight… too, if I can finish them…)  Well, this is getting to be a very very very very very very long Author's Note, so I'm going to shut up after I sing this lovely song I'm working on in voice lessons for you because I'm hyper:

El Majo Discreto

Dicen que mi majo es feo.  Es posible que si que lo sea.  Que amor es deseo que ciega y marea.  Ha tiempo que sé que quien á mano vé.

Más si no es mi majo un hombre, que por lindo descuelle ya sombre.  En cambio es descreto y guardaun secreto que y pose en él sabiendo que es fiel.

Cuál es el secreto que el majo guardó?  Seria indiscreto contarlo yo.  No poco trabajo costará saber secretos de un majo con una mujer.  Nació en Lavapies.  Eh!  Eh!  Es un majo, un majo es.

~Enrique Granados

Wow… That's really short just written out like that…  It's actually about two minutes long when sung, because you have to draw out all the words, and there's the piano interludes as well…  It's a really pretty song too.  It's really hard… There's a high A in it…  And lots of trilling…  And it's just kind of hard…  But it's really pretty…  And I'm repeating myself, and this is an amazingly long Author's Note, so I'm shutting up now.  Bye!  *Waves, and then turns around and walks off singing another weird song, UFO by Pink Lady, this one in Japanese.  (The song was really popular in Japan in the seventies.)  Ax looks around, and sees people looking at her, shrugs, and starts doing the even weirder dance that goes to the song that she knows by heart.  A flock of loons flies ahead of her, and seeing them, she stops singing and dancing, and instead starts singing "We Are the Champions," but changes the words to "The loons are the champions," and "No time for humans."  She bows low, and grins maniacally as the sun sets and the loons begin to glow a radioactive green.  She leans forward, then throws herself backwards into a back handspring, which she continues to do until she can no longer be seen, all the while screaming "Watashi-tachi wa kirei chiyagaru desu!  Mariko to Flock wa doko desu ka?"*    


	6. Ax

A/N:  I would like to dedicate this story to my friend VV, who has been in the hospital for a serious condition since December 23rd, and I just learned today, January 9th because I was on vacation so much during the break.  She might die, and she is only fifteen.  She is one of my best friends, so I ask you to pray for her, or if you do not pray, wish, or hope, or do whatever it is you do when you want something to happen.  VV is not an Animorphs fan; she has not ever even read a book or watched the (horrible) TV show, but she is great.  We are all scared to death about her, so, please, pray for her or something.

Also, thank you to the following for replying to my email begging for help in getting out of my writer's block  (If you still have not replied, I am still open to suggestions!  My email is MyLittlePony204@hotmail.com) :

Morpherkidvb

Shawna (Ami of Destiny)

Chapter 6

            I could almost feel the hatred radiating out of me.  I could not believe what the Murkra had just told me.  They kidnapped my species' ancestors to keep as pets.  Then they left them to evolve, letting them become warlike monsters.  I hated them for what they did to my prehistoric people.  Prince Jake had managed to calm me, so that I was no longer on the verge of trying to massacre Captain Miaker, but I was still angry.  What Prince Jake said made sense, but I could not, did not want to see it through my rage.  With realization of where we were and who the new Hork-Bajir were also lessened the original fire of the my hate, and I managed a smile, but the site of the Garatron ship only made my mood dark again.  I was going to have to fight against my own kin.  And it was the Murkra's fault.

            I don't think that they've seen exactly where we are yet, have they?  Otherwise they would have landed closer, Tobias commented.

            "I think Tobias is right," Prince Jake told us.  "If we keep moving, perhaps we will be okay for a while."

            "You welcome stay in trees with Hork-Bajir," said one of the four that had come to investigate us.  I believed it was the one Toby had said was the mixture of the people on earth.

            "We would like to, please," Toby said to them.  She was quite happy about meeting some of her people.

            "Thank you," said Sandra with a smile.

            We started following the Hork-Bajir, who introduced themselves as Fed Aree, Lorn Alpaf, Ink Kelpak, and Burg Erkin, but it was difficult because they swung through the trees whereas we had to walk on the severely tilted ground.  At one point, we considered acquiring a small animal we saw in the trees that the Hork-Bajir called a _chadoo_, but because Sandra, General Doubleday, Menderash, Toby, Guide, and the many hundred Murkra could not morph.  

As far as I was concerned, we should have left the Murkra where they were for the Garatron to find.  I was still seething.

Slowly, we followed Burg, Fed, Lorn, and Ink to their tribe's camp.  The entire time, we looked cautiously towards the Garatron's landing site, half expecting them to jump out from behind one of the monstrous trees and kill us all.  My own cousins would do that.

As we walked, I could more clearly see the destruction caused by the Yeerks.  There were large fallen, decaying trees in many places we passed.  The ground was scarred with scorch marks.  Shrubbery was few and far between.

When I looked down, I saw a viscous purple gas at the bottom of the valley.  I decided that beneath it was the Arn cities, and that that was the barrier where the fabled _Jubba-Jubba _and other monsters lived.  About one thousand feet below us, I saw the first of a series of platforms rising up into the sky attached to the trees.  Hork-Bajir clung to the trunks and sliced off bark, which they handed down, or up, depending on where exactly on the tree they were, to other Hork-Bajir who placed the slices onto specified platforms.  Occasionally, I could catch snatches of their guttural language.  They all looked extremely busy.

When we passed by them, they became quiet stared at us.  Especially at Yahal and me.  You could almost see the wheels turning in their slow heads: _are those the Andalites, the creatures who killed us off?  Are those some new host bodies?  Have the Yeerks come back?_  They shied away, giving us space.

Suddenly, Fed jumped onto a tree trunk and climbed up a few feet to the closest platform, and called out.  Two other Hork-Bajir dropped what they were doing and came over to where we were.

"Hi," one said.  "Luk is oldest Hork-Bajir.  Fed say you from other place.  Say you friends."  When the Hork-Bajir said "Luk," he pointed at himself.

"Yes," Toby said to the speaker, "We are from another flower of Mother Sky.  The Yeerks took my father-father from here, and now I am here with my friends trying to escape more bad people.  Is there any way that the Hork-Bajir of this place could help us?"

"You different!"  Both of the new Hork-Bajir marveled.  Obviously, her sophisticated speech had tipped them off to the fact that Toby was a seer.  They stared at her, star-struck.  "Last different Hork-Bajir was Dak Hamee.  Dak dead.  But son-son-daughter of Dak is different.  Toby not here.  You Toby?"

Toby smiled, a fearsome sight on a Hork-Bajir.  "Yes, I am Toby.  How did you know about me?"

The second Hork-Bajir answered.  "Arn tell us after we born.  You come help us?"

"Do you need help?"  Toby asked, worried.

"Yes.  Other Hork-Bajir just tell Luk and Indi new monster come from Mother Sky.  New monster look like Andalite.  New monster kill Hork-Bajir and make dead Hork-Bajir go away.  New monster look like Hork-Bajir."  I figured that Indi was the other Hork-Bajir's name.

I saw Prince Jake's hands tighten, and Cassie moved closer to him.  Marco's lips pursed for a moment, which I took for a sign of frustration.  I am getting very good at reading human emotions.  Tobias fluffed his feathers, and Rachel's eyes narrowed.  The rest of the people with us shuffled nervously, except for Guide, who had no idea what was going on.

"The One,"  Prince Jake said.  

I nodded, a very human gesture, in response.

"Luk, Indi, we know this monster that you are talking about.  That is who we are trying to get away from.  Do you know where it is?" asked Toby.

Indi nodded.  "Come.  Indi take you.  Luk go back to other Hork-Bajir."

"You know," Marco said, "Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, our lives have gotten slightly INSANE ever since Elfangor came to Earth?  Just maybe?  I mean, here I am on another planet light-years away from home with my best friend and his supposedly dead brother, my best friend's fiancé, her best friend, who, by the way, is supposed to be dead, her boyfriend who is actually a talking bird, his uncle which is a four-eyed blue deer/centaur/scorpion.  I'm also with six walking, talking Salad-Shooters, an annoying alien from the planet of annoying, parasitic salespeople, a girl who was kidnapped by aliens, a human who is actually an alien stuck in morph, another deer/centaur/scorpion who is the son of the host-body of my old worst enemy, two more semi-normal people, except for the fact that they can turn into animals at will, and one normal guy, except for the fact that he helped us fight off brain-stealing aliens.  Not to mention a few hundred prehistoric crabs that created mutant Yeerks and Andalites.  And now, here we go, off to find and fight an all-powerful, evil pain-in-the-butt who has already beat Crayak, so that we can help some Salad-Shooters.  And one of the Salad-Shooters is going to guide us to him.  And, you know, instead of doing all of this, I could be home in the pool with some lovely Hollywood honeys, who-"

He stopped as Sandra gave him a dirty look.

"I mean, uh, I could be home in my pool with my friends here playing Marco Polo.  Haha, get it?  _Marco_ Polo?  Haha…"  he smiled brightly, but no one else laughed.  Sandra was still glaring at him, but her face had softened a little and a grin was tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Yeah, you're right," Prince Jake said.  "We could be back home.  But remember, you were bored out of your mind.  Anyway, won't it be fun fighting incredibly fast aliens led by a jerk and a galactic pain-in-the-butt?"  He smiled sarcastically.

Rachel smiled crazily.

"Oh, yeah, great fun," Marco muttered.

"Fed.  Burg.  Lorn.  Ink.  Come with Luk," Luk said.  The four Hork-Bajir went off, following Luk.  

"Captain Miaker, most of your people should stay here, where it's safe.  If you do choose to come with us, please only bring a few Murkra.  And you will have to keep yourselves hidden at first, if we want to negotiate with Captain Barvaritun Larumian Hartar.  I don't think the Garatron would have a very good reaction to seeing you."

At this, Rachel exploded.  "You think you can negotiate with those creeps?  They slice and dice you before you even have a chance to say, 'We come in peace!'"

Prince Jake pursed his lips.  "We can try, at least.  Captain Miaker, what would you like to do?"

Inwardly, I was seething.  Prince Jake wanted the Murkra scum to help us.

I will come with you, and bring two of my soldiers.  Leenear!  Raikon!  We will help Jake and his friends get rid of the Garatron.  The rest of you, stay here, I'm sure the Hork-Bajir would be more than willing to have you for a few hours.  As he said this, Indi was nodding in agreement.  We walked away from the settlement, following Indi.

_Good,_ I thought, _we were rid of most of the Murkra for now._

There were now only eighteen of us, being the ten humans, three Murkra, Tobias, Toby, Guide, Yahal, and I with the Hork-Bajir Indi.  And we followed him to the place where we believed the most dangerous creature in this part of the universe was.


	7. Jake

A/N:  Guess what!!!!  VV is out of the hospital!!!  And she's back at school, too!  Of course, I was the last to know because I was sick and and out of school, but you know…  She still needs your prayers though, please, because she is going to have to have chemotherapy.  And I'm sorry the last chapter took so long to get out, so please forgive me, but I did try!  I'm going to try and get this one out quicker.

Chapter 7

            "She looks more animated than she has since we left Earth," Cassie said to me, pointing at Toby.  I agreed.  I had only been with her for two days now, but she did look happier than she had before.  She was talking loudly with Indi in the Hork-Bajir language.  I smiled weakly.  At least one of us was having a good time.  

Ax, on the other hand, was sulking.  It was almost comical.  There was a borderline cute, four-eyed, blue centaur with a scorpion's tail hanging its head, drooping its stalk eyes, shuffling its hooves but kicking at the ground every couple of steps, and generally just acting like a two-year-old having a temper tantrum.  Yahal looked much the same.  Menderash walked near them with his arms folded and his face set like stone.  Every once in a while I could hear him ask or answer a question, and it usually had the word "Murkra" in it.  It was said with as much loathing as I heard whenever they said "Yeerk".  I could only assume that the two Andalites and the human _nothlit_ were discussing what the Murkra had done.

Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon trailed along behind us, blinking their many eyes and scuttling sideways.  They looked nervous.  I didn't blame them; the Andalites were angry, and the Murkra were following around some aliens they barely knew, and only followed because they had a common enemy and bought their ship.  

"Yeah, I guess she does," I finally replied to Cassie.  "She looks really happy."

Cassie nodded.  "So, what do you expect us to do against the One and the Garatron?" she finally asked.

I sighed.  "Personally, I have no idea.  Toby seems to think that we need to help the Hork-Bajir, and I agree, because it was our fault that the Garatron showed up here in the first place."

"It wasn't our fault," she said.  "They shot at us first, and caused us to crash here.  Not our fault.  But I agree, we do need to help."

I nodded again, thoughtfully.  Marco and Sandra sauntered up.

"Hey, wuzzup?" Marco asked with a grin.  Sandra smiled.

"Nothing much," I answered, "just trying to figure out what we're going to do once we find the big evil guy."

Marco snickered.  "So, the fearless leader doesn't have a plan, huh?  Oh well, it's not like we ever had a plan fighting the Yeerks."  He winked as he said all this, so I would know that he was joking.  

Cassie and I laughed, and Sandra looked surprised.

"Heh, heh, heh, you didn't realize that we just rushed into things, did you?"  Marco asked Sandra.

She knitted her eyebrows and shook her head, confused.  "I didn't realize that it was like that at all," she said.

Rachel and Tobias, who was in human morph, walked up after overhearing a bit of our conversation.

"They make it look so glorious in the movies and books they made, but it wasn't that way at all," Cassie told her.  "We usually only had basic plans, with a lot of things that could and usually did go wrong.  It wasn't glorious at all.  It was slaughter."

Sandra looked concerned.  "I had no idea," she said sadly.

"It turned out okay, though, right?  I mean, we beat the Yeerks, and saved all the human race and the galaxy, got morphing technology for a few select humans, and have them about to go zipping around space!"  That was Rachel, of course.

I felt sick, suddenly, as though somebody had punched me in the stomach.  I stopped walking, and I saw Cassie look at me, concerned.  I closed my eyes for a second, and then opened them again.  

But I didn't see the rest of the Animorphs and some other people on the Hork-Bajir homeworld in front of me.  Instead, I saw Visser One standing in front of the viewing screen on the Pool ship, and on the screen was Rachel looking back at us, blood all around her.  There was a cobra laying in two pieces next to her.  A polar bear paw came from above her, killing her in an instant.  "No!" I yelled.  I closed my eyes and opened again, realizing that I had tears streaming from them.  I found myself on the ground in the mud, with Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Marco, and Tom standing in a circle around me.  Sandra, Yahal, Toby, Menderash, General Doubleday, Guide, Jeanne, Indi, Captain Miaker and the other two Murkra, and Santorelli were standing together a bit further away, looking at me every few seconds with subdued looks. 

"Hey, Midget, you okay?  What happened?" Tom asked, reaching down a hand for me so that I could stand up.

"I don't know," I told him.  I then looked at Rachel.  "No.  It was not okay.  You died.  Tom died.  Seventeen thousand Yeerks died.  James and his people died.  That was not okay."

The non-Animorphs were now whispering quietly.

She looked down.  I could almost see her squirming under my gaze.  "Tom and I are alive though.  And– well, I know that James and his people and the seventeen thousand Yeerks are dead, but, Jake, that was three years ago!  You did what you had to do, and we're all sorry that it turned out the way it did, but we couldn't help it."

Tom nodded at her, and then looked at me.  "Look at Rachel and I, Jake.  Does it look like we hold anything against you?  We don't.  I wanted to die.  I wanted that horrible thing out of my head, and if that meant dying, then so be it.  When the Yeerk decided to double-cross Visser One, I was excited.  I thought that maybe, just maybe he would be caught and killed.  Along with me.  And I would be free.  I don't know, because I didn't live through that timeline, but I'm quite certain that when we discovered Rachel was on the Blade ship, I was cheering for her in my own little corner of my mind.  And Rachel, from what I've heard, would have done what she did in that other timeline whether you had ordered her to or not.  We all wanted freedom for ourselves and our species, and most of us didn't expected to make it anyway, so I'm sure that the auxiliary Animorphs do not blame you either.  You told them the risk, yet they went anyway.  It was not your fault."

Cassie looked at me and, not wanting anybody else to hear, mouthed, "He's right."

I finally nodded my understanding and acceptance, and gave Tom a weak smile.  I grabbed his hand, and he pulled me up.  "Thanks, bro," I said softly, as everybody started to drift off and once again follow Indi.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for, right?" he asked with a lopsided grin.  "Now, don't get all mushy on me," he said as he lightly punched me in the shoulder.

I grinned back at him.  When I looked past him, I saw Jeanne Emilie Gerard smiling back at us.  "I think that someone's waiting for you, now that I'm okay," I teased him.

He looked behind him at Jeanne.  "Gotta go," he said to me.  "Get better, okay?"

I nodded again.  He turned around and went back to Jeanne, and they started to once again follow Indi hand in hand.

Cassie came back over.  "You're not okay."  

I looked at her.  She was so beautiful.  How could I have ever left her?  "No, I think I am.  It was just that one thing that Rachel said.  No matter what happens, that final battle is never going to be "okay"," I told her.

She smiled slowly.  "Yes."

I was confused.  "Yes what?"

"Yes.  I agree with you.  Death is not okay.  But freedom is."  She looked at me, and her grin widened.  "You are okay."

I hugged her close.  "Yes."  I smiled at her, and then kissed her for a moment.  I heard Marco laughing, and then ask Sandra if she would like to do the same.  I pulled away just in time to see Sandra slap Marco jokingly on the shoulder, and him yell out as a large red mark started to show.  She was laughing, and after a moment he grinned ruefully and took her hand in his.

I turned back to Cassie, who was smiling at me.  "I'm marrying the best girl in the universe, you realize that, don't you?"

She laughed, and took my hand.  I was feeling much better.  Rachel and Tobias came back over.  

"So, does anybody have any idea what we're going to do once we finally get there?  I mean, not necessarily a plan, but how are we going to kick butt on an all-powerful being and aliens that move faster than anything we've ever experienced before?"  Rachel questioned, bringing the topic back into discussion.

Ax, who had been walking nearby, came back over.  I thought that this was a mostly peaceful mission, and we were just going to try and negotiate.

"Well," I said, "officially, yes.  But judging by what they have done on sight the other times they've seen us, I'm guessing that –"

"We will need to fight them," Rachel cut me off.

Tobias laughed, but it looked strange on his face which had barely any expression.  "That's my girl, always first to a fight."

We all laughed, even Ax.  Everybody seemed to be in better spirits than before, what with Toby and Indi talking, Ax talking with us, Yahal, Menderash, General Doubleday, and Santorelli distracted with their same old discussion of human culture versus Andalite culture, and Tom and Jeanne in their own little world.  Even Captain Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon seemed to be a bit more at ease.  Only Guide seemed to be alone.  

Preoccupied, I looked at him, wheezing as he walked along.  Suddenly, he seemed to stumble.  I rubbed my eyes, thinking that maybe it had been a trick of the sunlight, because I had always thought him to be so steady; he would have to to live on the Iskoort homeworld where one wrong step could mean falling miles to the ground and your death.  But no, as I watched, he was swerving back and forth, as though he was drunk.  He put the tentacle-finger of his right hand to a hole in his head which I could only assume was his ear.  I though, _Hmm, that's strange._  But just then, he just collapsed, and his whining grew unnaturally loud.  I was the only one to notice, and everybody else continued walking.  I stopped, and Cassie looked back to where I was gazing.

"Guide?" she asked, "are you alright?  What's wrong?"

He slowly turned his ugly face towards us.  Yoort, he finally managed to say, needs Kandrona.  It has been nearly three days.  Do you have any Kandrona?

Everyone else heard him now, and turned to look.  I felt myself go pale, and Cassie's grip on my hand became tighter.  "Oh, Guide…" she said, worry in her tone.

None of us knew where to find any Kandrona within light years of the Hork-Bajir homeworld.


	8. Cassie

A/N: Thanks to Hanni B, who emailed me with a suggestion!  I use it in this chapter!  And I would just like to say to Shawna:  ORLANDO AND MARCO ARE MINE!  I'M GOING OUT WITH MARCO, THEREFORE HE IS MINE!  You can have Fred, though.  If you marry him, and I marry George, we'll be twins-in-law!  LOL!

Chapter 8

            I was worried.  We had miraculously come this far without losing anybody.  We had come close to doing so, but Tom had beat death.  Even with the One, the destroyed Blade ship, and the Garatron trying so hard to destroy us, we were all still safe.  We had a few scrapes and bruises, but they could be overlooked.  I truly did not want to lose anybody after we had come this far.  

            But each living thing needs three very basic things to survive: food, water, and shelter.  Okay, so ever since humans met aliens, we've learned that not all things need water, such as the _Veleek_ that lives on good old Saturn from our own solar system.  But you still get my drift.  However, Guide was not getting his food, Kandrona.  He was starving to death.  And to our knowledge, the closest Kandrona particle emitter was on the Yeerk homeworld, light years away.

            By now, the rest of the people in our group had stopped and were goggling at the sight of Guide writhing on the ground in agony.

            "He said that the Isk can't live without the Yoort, right?" Rachel asked.

            I nodded.  "He said that it was a truly symbiotic relationship, and that each was vital to the other."

            Yes, Ax said haughtily, in that one way, they are different from the Yeerks.  They are symbiotes.  But it appears that it can also be a great weakness.

            Jake nodded slowly, his eyes locked on Guide.  "Captain Miaker, when you transported the Yeerk ancestors to _Kelbrid_ space, how did you feed them?"

            We had a Kandrona on the ship, with a pool to go with it, but the Garatron took the Kandrona when they attacked us and set all of our pets free.

            When he mentioned the word "pets," I looked over at Ax.  His tail started twitching, his main eyes narrowed, and he looked as though it was taking every ounce of his strength to keep himself from killing the Murkra.

            "Ax," Jake said, noticing the same thing I had, "cool it."

            Ax lowered his tail.  About one millimeter.  Jake glared at him and he lowered it a bit more.

            "So there is nothing you can do for him," Jake said, listlessly.

            I'm sorry.  Nothing.

            Jake closed his eyes and shook his head.  I could imagine the stress he was under.  Not only were we light years away from home, about to face an evil, seemingly all-powerful being, but Jake had always told me how important it was that a leader show no weaknesses.  He thought that he needed to appear especially strong right now because of his panic attack from a few moments earlier.  But it was going to be hard for him to do that if we all knew without a doubt that Guide would die.

"Guide, how much longer do you absolutely have to have Kandrona?" Jake asked.

One hour, two hours maybe, Guide managed to gasp.

"What can we do?" Santorelli questioned.

              Guide did not answer him, but Captain Miaker supplied an answer.  He cannot survive unless he gets Kandrona in the next hour to two hours, however long he has left.  We cannot do anything.

              "I say that I know what we do: we kick the One's all-powerful butt and force him to create a Kandrona for us."  Rachel, of course.

              I do not think that he can do that, Ax said, but it may be possible, and it is our only possible chance.

              Jake looked at Guide, who was still lying on the ground in pain, grimly, and said, "Okay.  We go quicker, and hope to get there and destroy him in time to save Guide.  The fastest way to do this is to have all morph-capable people morph something that can go through these trees quickly, one of us carrying Guide.  Toby, too, of course.  Everybody else will just have to stay here.  I'm sorry, but we're faster without you, and besides, no offense, but Sandra, General Doubleday, and Menderash, your human bodies are useless in a fight.  Cassie, Marco, Tobias, Ax, Rachel?  Morph Hork-Bajir.  I'm sure that the Hork-Bajir your morphs are based on would not care.  Tom, do you have a Hork-Bajir morph?"

             Tom shook his head, and said, "No, sorry."

             "Alright then, you will need to acquire something, along with Yahal, Santorelli, and Jeanne."  Jake turned to Indi, and I supposed that he was going to ask if it would be alright to use his DNA, but then I spotted something in the trees above us.

            "What's that?" I asked, but I recognized it almost as the words came out of my mouth.  It was a _chadoo_.  It was brightly colored, and had feathers.  It was jumping through the trees, opening flaps on its sides to glide, almost like a flying squirrel.

            "_Chadoo_," Indi said bluntly.  As he said that, he walked over to a nearby tree and scraped away some of its bark, allowing some sap to trickle out of the wound.  He put some on his claw, and held it up in the general direction of the _chadoo_.  Surprisingly, the small animal came down quickly and started licking the sap off of Indi's hand.  "This is _chadoo_," he said again.

            Jake said, "Everybody who needs a morph that can take you through the trees, come here.  Acquire the _chadoo_."

            Santorelli, Tom, Jeanne, and Yahal came over and one by one, the DNA of the _chadoo_ became a part of them.

            "Toby, could you please tell Indi what will happen?  You have seen us morph before."

            "Indi, in a few minutes, they–" she pointed at the Animorphs, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Tom, "–will change bodies.  They will still be themselves, but they will look like _chadoo_ or Hork-Bajir."

            I started morphing, and the first sensation I had was of growing up.  I am actually quite short, only an inch or two over five feet, and I was about to become a Hork-Bajir that was seven feet tall, more or less.  I reached the full height when I was still fully human.

            Marco did the same thing, and started laughing.  "Wow, Rachel, would you look at this?  I'm taller than you, and by almost a foot, too!"

            She smirked.  "Yes, but I could still whup you anyday," she said as blades grew out of the knees, elbows, and wrists of her still mostly-human body.  She flashed a toothy grin at him, and her face exploded outwards into a Hork-Bajir beak.

            I felt an itching sensation on my forehead, and placed my hand on it, only to feel horns sprout out of it.  Vicious blades also grew from my arms and legs.  There was a squirming sensation as my backbone elongated and a thick tail grew from it.  I was still myself, except for the blades, the tail, and my tall stature.

            "That looks awesome!" Tom exclaimed.  "How do you do it?"

            "I don't know… I just do," I answered him.

            Cassie is a natural _estreen_, she has a talent for morphing, Ax stated.  She is actually better than many of the _estreens_ on the Andalite homeworld.

            I felt myself blush from the praise, and to cover it up, I let my smooth skin become rough and dry, like leather.  It changed color from brown to dark green.  I felt muscles ripple up under my skin, and my lips became hard like fingernail.  They bulged outward, and I heard a grinding noise as my skull reformed to hold the swiftly growing jaw.

            I know that you must be thinking that it was extremely painful, right?  But the Andalites, when they created the technology, worked some sort of pain-killer into it.  That was a good thing, because if there hadn't been, I probably would have died from the pain alone.  I could sort of tell that it should hurt, but it didn't.  The best way to describe it, I think, would be like having your mouth injected full of Novacaine at the dentist's office.  You know that the drilling should hurt, and you can feel it from very far away, it seems, but it does not hurt.

            A few seconds later, the morph completed, and I felt the Hork-Bajir mind bubble up beneath my own.  It was strange, many of the Hork-Bajir instincts were not unlike some of my own human ones.  I had noticed the same thing about five years before when I had been to this planet, with the _Ixcila_ of Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan, the daughter of Seerow who fought the Yeerks here, eventually becoming a _nothlit_ so that she and Dak Hamee, a Hork-Bajir seer and Toby's great-grandfather could live together, inside my head.  Aldrea had guessed that we had tree-dwelling ancestors, and that it was those primordial instincts reasserting themselves.  I agreed with her.

            Beyond that, the Hork-Bajir instincts were quite mild.  Although the Hork-Bajir look fierce, they are actually only peaceful herbivores, who use their blades to strip bark from trees.  Unfortunately for them, the Yeerks saw them as weapons, and used them as their shock troops when they fought for domination of the galaxy.

            I looked around with my eyes, to see everybody else only about half morphed.  I have always seemed to be a bit faster at morphing, as well.  As I watched, Jake's human eyes turned red, and horns shot out of his forehead.  His toes melted together and reformed into three toes, and a third came out of his heel.  Marco's tan skin turned the same dark green mine was, and his ears became long and pointed.  Rachel's long blonde hair schlooped back into her head.  Ax's tail became shorter and thicker, and his tail blade split into four spikes that came up like a Stegosaurus' tail spikes.  Tobias' hawk eyes, for he had had to demorph to hawk before being able to morph Hork-Bajir, changed to red from gold, and a few remaining feathers melted into his skin.  Two stubby legs burst out of Tom's chest, and they quickly became covered with blue feathers.  Stretchy flaps of skin grew out along Jeanne's sides, which she could stretch out and use to glide.  As for Yahal, a horizontal gash opened across his face, and small red teeth sprouted out of it.

            Sandra had her eyes glued to us, her eyes wide in horror, her mouth hanging open.  General Doubleday had his eyes averted, hoping not to see what he knew would be a gruesome sight.  Menderash stood watching, looking a little put out, probably because he was thinking that he would be morphing _chadoo_ right now if he weren't trapped in human morph.  Toby continued talking to Indi, and Guide lay on the ground trembling.

            The others completed their morphs, and Marco, seeing Sandra's expression, said, Not exactly like they make it look in the movie, huh?

            She shook her head, no.

            Yeah, they make it look all nice, and pretty, and gradual in those.  But it's actually not like that at all.  He grinned in anticipation, but it was the slightly scary Hork-Bajir smile.  Except for me.  I can make anything look good.

            Sandra rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.  

            Prince Jake, we will not have very much time.  We should leave now, Ax declared.

            Toby carefully picked up Guide, and started climbing up the nearest tree.  We wanted to get up as high as possible.

            See ya, Menderash, General.  Goodbye, Sandra, Marco said.  He lightly placed one claw on her shoulder, and she put her hand on it.  It only lasted a minute, but it made me smile.  

            Later, people, if we survive, Rachel said grimly.  I shot her a nasty look, and she shrugged.  

            We will be back, okay?  Just go back to where you saw Burg, Luk, Fed, Lorn, and Ink last, and you should be able to get back to the Hork-Bajir camp from there.  Wish us luck, Jake said.

            "Good luck!" Sandra and the General cried.

            "Andalites do not believe in luck," Menderash said, "but we do believe in hope.  I hope that you will succeed."

            With that last note, the rest of us climbed into the trees, and followed Indi on his way.  And the higher we got, the more I got the feeling that I had seen these exact trees before.


	9. Tobias

A/N:  Just for clarification, I would like to say that LOONS (the bird, not the nutcases) will take over the world, NOT Cat, Nydia, ants, gundams and zoids, or elves.  LOONS!  All hail them!  Also, Marco, George Weasley, Sean Biggerstaff, and Orlando Bloom still belong to me, but Marco most of all!

Chapter 9

            I raced up, and up some more.  It was effortless to just go up twenty feet in a Hork-Bajir body.  We needed to get up as high as possible, because, just like flying, altitude equaled distance.  When we got to the top of this tree, we could swing down to the next, and from there onto the next, et cetera, at last allowing us to come to where we wanted to be.  

            I looked down one last time, and saw General Doubleday and Sandra waving, and Menderash looking at us.  The Murkra held their strong arms up into the sky, although I do not know what it meant.

            At about the same level as me, Toby struggled to go upwards while holding Guide, who came up to about chest-height, had calves that extended forward onto the ground, and a delicate, wheezing diaphragm.  All the while, Guide was still kicking and wheezing loudly.  Not far below me were Ax, Marco, and Cassie, climbing steadily.  Far above me already was Rachel, occasionally shouting, I _love_ this body!  Jake was a mere thirty feet over my head, and he had stopped, waiting for the rest of the group.  Indi was above him, but below Rachel.  He climbed a few feet every few seconds, and then looked back down at us.  Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Yahal scampered up the tree in their _chadoo_ morphs.

            We were now nearly five hundred feet off of the ground.  As we rose, I looked at the surroundings and they started looking more and more familiar.  

I finally reached the top of the tree, where Indi, Jake, and Rachel were already waiting.  Toby, Ax, Marco, and Cassie came up to us only a few minutes later.  We stayed there for a couple of moments to allow Toby to rest after carrying Guide.

Toby stared at Cassie and Rachel sadly, and after a few seconds under her gaze, Rachel started to squirm.

May I help you? she asked icily.

"I'm sorry," Toby said, "but your morph used my father's DNA.  You look exactly like Jara Hamee, who is dead.  And we could not rescue him, like we rescued Tom and yourself."

Rachel fell silent.  I'm sorry, she finally said quietly.

No one said anything for a minute or two, and then Toby smiled sadly.

Finally, we started off again.  Indi went first, and he ran along a long branch near us, and when he finally made it to the end, he bounced a couple of times, and leaped off into space.  Yahal, Tom, Jeanne, and Santorelli scurried after him, opening their skin flaps when they jumped off the tree.  Rachel and I jumped off after them, soaring through the air.

YAAAHHH! I yelled, trying to flap my wings.  The wings which I did not have.  I know that I float through the air every day, but I always have wings to hold me up.  I didn't have anything this time.

This is great! Rachel hollered back, plummeting next to me.  I love her to death, but sometimes she really can be crazy.

I let the Hork-Bajir mind take over for a few moments, it knew what to do to keep from hurtling to its death.  I reached out one strong arm, and grabbed a branch overhead.  It slowed my momentum down, and I managed to grab another one after that, and swing myself on top.  Nothing like landing as a bird.

Rachel landed a few feet away, and came back over to me.  Fun! she exclaimed in open thought speak, so that everybody could hear.  Let's do that again!

If I had been able to roll my eyes, I would have.  

Ax, Marco, Jake, and Cassie, who had come right after us, walked over as well.  Okay, Xena, Marco told her, but I would like to say, just for the record, that swinging through the trees as alien Salad Shooters, not to mention having _fun _while doing that, is INSANE!

The rest of us laughed.  It felt so good to have us all back together again.  After the war, I could simply not go on.  I was mad with grief for Rachel, and I hated Jake.  Hated him.  I just did not understand how he could have ordered his cousin to kill his brother, even knowing that she would die as well.  I isolated myself from everybody, only coming into public that one time to get Rachel's ashes.  What I now realized was that they were probably just another illusion created by the Chee.  I only talked to Cassie and Toby.  Cassie tried to help me, but I was beyond help.  I wanted nothing besides death or Rachel, back again, somehow.  When she finally accepted that, she would just bring me news of the world.  I really did not care, but she was trying to help so I listened.  Toby would come to me for advice, and tried to help me out of my grief, but she was no more successful than Cassie.  I started wishing that I had never even been born, because then I wouldn't have had to suffer through the hell that I was living.

I missed my friends.  I missed Marco's stupid jokes, Cassie's moral discussions.  Ax's technical explanations and his company at night when I was troubled, and Jake's orders.  I hated Jake, but that did not mean that I missed the old Jake, the one I had been friends with, the one that I met after he saved me from bullies trying to push my head into the toilet.  

If it had not been for him, I never would have been an Animorph, met Rachel, or met my father.  Or my mother.  I never would have felt the air under my wings, or done so many other things.  Yes, I hated him, but if I had never known him in the first place, I never would have really gotten to know Rachel.

And most of all, I missed Rachel.  Her devil-may-care smile, her recklessness, her bravery.  Everything about her, even her little insecurities.

I missed them all, but I knew that we could never be the same as we were ever again.  We had changed.  Rachel was dead.  Marco was rich, and famous.  Cassie had her dream of working with animals.  Ax was a prince, and in space.  Jake was depressed, according to Cassie.  I only wanted it to be like it was, back before everything got so sad and everybody had to be evacuated to the Hork-Bajir valley.  That was when everything started coming apart.

But most of all, I just wanted Rachel back.

Whatever you say, Marco, Rachel retorted to his earlier comment, but at least I don't amuse myself by swimming through pools of money!

Ouch, he said, that hurt.  Anyway, what's wrong with doing that?  You don't know just how happy it makes you feel.  You aren't a millionaire!  He laughed.

What ever happened to the simple pleasures in life?  Don't you guys think that it's nice to just sit outside and watch the stars? Cassie asked innocently.

We all stopped what we were doing, and stared at her.

I was just kidding! she exclaimed, laughing.  We all joined her.  

Ax was quiet at first, but then he said, Hah.  Hah.  Hah-hah.

What was that? Marco asked, looking at Ax strangely.

I was laughing.

Right… Whatever, Ax, Rachel teased.

Finally, Toby jumped into the tree next, carrying Guide.  I don't know how she managed it, but she somehow made it safely.   Indi started swinging through the trees again, and we all followed him, still laughing together.

A/N:  Okay, now that that's finished, I would just like to do some shameless advertising for myself and some friends.  PLEASE read my other fics.  Besides my trilogy, I have quite a few music videos and song fics, as well as a very humorous series of conversations me and some friends had with a really scary guy from my brother school where we pretend to be Cassie, Rachel, Melissa Chapman, Danae Fangor (future daughter of Rachel and Tobias), Aldrea Berenson (future daughter of Jake and Cassie), Jake, Ax, and Crayak.  I also have one Animorphs poem, and one original poem, and one original novel (but if I don't get some reviews on it soon, I'm going to take it off!).  As for my friends and fellow authors, please read the works of:

Divel-17

Chibi Chang

Aidyn Elcrom

Ami of Destiny

Anifan1

Emily White(formerly known as Trampling Rose

Lady Lupin

Lillybell04

Peacockgirl

Phennphenn

Quackingduk

The Excessively Loud Waterfowl

The Wandering Blue Andalite

Thanx!


	10. Rachel

A/N:  You know, you guys should be glad that I live so far away from my school.  If it weren't for the fact that it's a half an hour-long drive to get to my school, I would probably never have time to work on this.  :-P  Well, please R/R!  I'm tired…. It's too early to be awake and writing…  To quote Marco from one of the books, "You know, before I met you guys, I never knew that there was a sunrise.  I knew that it set in the evening, and when I woke up, it was back in the sky again, but I never actually saw it rise."  That would be my life.  I say that all people on FFN start a motion to have school start later!  Ten o'clock would be good, or even eleven.  They can make it so that it ends later, if they really have to, but they need to start it later too.  WE NEED OUR SLEEP!  lol. 

Chapter 10

            I finally asked the question that had been bugging me for a while.  Okay, is it just me, or does this area look really familiar?

            I was noticing the same thing, Cassie answered me.

            Me too, said Tobias.

            I scanned the area with my powerful Hork-Bajir eyes.  They were not nearly as good as my eagle eyes, but they were good enough.

            Above me were a few more branches, and then open sky, and beneath me were leaves, branches, trees, and more plants.  We were so high up, I could just barely see the ground.

            Ax, how much time do we have left if we want to save Guide? Jake asked.

            Forty-five minutes have elapsed since Guide fell.  He has between fifteen minutes to one hour and fifteen minutes.

            Alright, Jake said tensely, hurry up.  We don't have that much time.

            Prince Jake, you do realize that I am not very certain that this will work, right?  I do not think that the One can really form Kandrona rays right here.

            Jake pursed his lips.  I know.  But it really is the only thing we can think of, and it's better than nothing.  And we have to do something about the One no matter what.

            We continued on in silence, when we finally came to a clearing near the narrow end of the valley where it was obvious that a many very large trees had once stood.  I guessed that the Yeerks cut them down when they were still on the Hork-Bajir planet.  I looked across the gap, trying to see how hard it would be to get across.  It would be hard, but I was pretty sure that we could make it.  I finally looked down, to see what grew where the dead trees would have once before blocked out all the sunlight.  There were saplings and small plants all struggling to survive in that one small area of sunlight.  However, there was something strange on the center of the clearing.  There were quite a few large, dead logs that looked as though they may have been in some formation years ago, but were no longer.  All around them, the grass was dead and had some discoloring substance on it.  I finally recognized where we were.

            Cassie! I called to my best friend.  It's the old Yeerk pool!  The logs over there were the sides, and the dark stuff on the grass must be the evaporated sludge that hasn't quite washed away yet.  That's why everything looks so familiar!

            She glanced down.  You're right, she laughed.  That explains everything.

            It's the old Yeerk pool, I said in open thought speak, so that everybody else could hear.

            It was above ground? Tom asked.

            Yes, Tobias said, there was a dam made out of those logs down there, and this entire area was a Yeerk pool.

            The _chadoo_ that was my cousin Tom chattered angrily.

            We got it real good, I said smugly, savoring the memory of watching Yeerk pool sludge drain through the hole we created in one of the trees holding up the pool.

            "Yes, it was a major blow to the Yeerk forces on this planet, I would guess," Toby said, sadness touching her voice.  I did not understand why, at first, but then realized that this was the battle where she had to say goodbye to her great-grandmother, Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan.

            It was you? Tom asked, unbelievingly.  I heard reports about the main pool on the Hork-Bajir homeworld being destroyed by a large group of highly trained Andalites.  They never even guessed…  He trailed off.

            Surprise! Marco said brightly.

            "Old Arn say this was bad place.  Old Arn say friends helped wreck it," Indi said.  "There was still building.  Hork-Bajir break building."

            I was surprised.  That was one of the longest speeches I had ever heard a Hork-Bajir, besides Toby say.

            What do you mean that you broke the building? Jake questioned.

            "Building was still there.  Hork-Bajir ruin."

            Okay, I guess there was some store house that we did not ruin, and the Hork-Bajir took it down, Marco commented.

            Gee, do you think? I asked sarcastically, but then I laughed, to let him know that I was joking.

            What was in the building? asked Jake, still searching for information.

            Big machine.  Hork-Bajir no break.

            Jake looked excited, and said, A big machine could be anything, maybe even a bug fighter or something of the sort that we could use.  We should go down.

            "Yes, that would be a good idea, I believe," Toby said eagerly.

            We descended quickly down the enormously tall tree, and as we came closer to the ground, I saw the wrecked building Indi had been talking about.  Standing in the center of the ruins was the machine.

            That's no bug fighter, Marco said.

            No, it's not, Jake agreed.

            We all studied it for a moment, but I could just not figure out what it was.  It looked very familiar, but I simply could not place it.

            Finally, Jake said, Ax, do you have any idea what this is?

            Yes, Prince Jake, I do.  He did not elaborate.

            Well?  What is it? Tobias probed.

            I assumed that you knew.

            We don't, Ax.  Just tell us what it is, Jake said crossly.

            It is a Kandrona, Ax stated matter-of-factly.

            Why didn't you just tell us in the first place? I exclaimed, exasperated, as everybody broke into excited chatter.

            Please don't assume we know things like that, Jake groaned.  Do you think that we could use it?  I mean, if that spaceship Aldrea had started up after so many years, this should be no problem.  And then we could just get some water near it, put Guide inside the water, and he could feed?

            That should work, yes, Ax answered.

            I grinned with my Hork-Bajir face.  Let's do it!

            Man, Marco complained, I hate it when she says that.  Now I know that this entire trip is insane and we're all going to die!

            I grinned at him, batted my eyes with a bit of difficulty, as they were Hork-Bajir eyes, and jumped the rest of the way to the ground, soon followed by everybody else.

A/N:  Wow, I'm really getting these out fast!  Go me!  Now, two more things:  As for who will and who will not conquer the world, my theology teacher has joined in the fight, and he thinks that cockroaches will take over for some inane reason.  Don't ask me where he got that, because he's completely, totally, utterly wrong.  LOONS will take over the world!  The other thing is to PLEASE review!  Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, 

please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE review!  I'm aiming for one hundred!  And after that two hundred!  And after that one thousand!  And after that, ten thousand!  And after that, well, you get the idea…  Anyway, expect the next chapter soon!


	11. Ax

A/N:  I HAVE 109 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ALL OF MY WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, EXTREMELY GRAD REVIEWERS!  I love you all!  (Although I don't think that my friends do… I was in our favorite teacher's classroom with a bunch of my friends after school when I found out.  I ran around screaming that I had over one hundred reviews and hugging them all until they held me down and taped my mouth shut.  I was very excited.)  Anyway, thank you soooooooooooo much, this chapter is dedicated to you.  Also, all of you guys need to thank my good friend phennphenn for making me write this, in a way.  She really could not care less if I post chapters on it or not, but I am on my way home from school right now, and I thought that I would play Zoo Tycoon (Awesome game) instead of work on this chapter, and I tried to open the file, but it turns out that she stole my CD, so I can't play!  Instead, I'm writing, just for you guys.  Don't you feel special?

Chapter 11

            After we approached the Kandrona Particle Emitter, it was a simple enough matter for me and Yahal to start it up again.  After all, it was the Andalites who gave the Yeerks the original Kandrona emitters.  None of what the Yeerks had was actually theirs, they stole it all from us.

            It only took a few minutes, and thankfully, Indi knew about a nearby stream.  He and Cassie went to go fetch some water, and brought along a bowl-shaped piece of wreckage from the building to hold the water in.  When they returned, we placed it near the Kandrona, allowing it to soak up the rays.

            Toby picked up Guide once again, and put him down next to the water.

            Guide, come out of your host, Prince Jake said tersely.  Guide, you need to come out of your host!

            At first, nothing happened.  We all watched tensely, hoping that he would come out and save himself.

            Nothing happened.

            Nothing happened.

            Finally, Cassie said, Is that something coming out of his ear?

            I trained my eyes on his ear, and saw that there was definitely something coming out.  Slowly, Guide's host body went still.  The slug that was Guide drained into the water, and there was a small splash.  I could see it moving around, slowly at first, but then picking up speed as it gained nutrients from the water.

            He should be okay, in a few moments, a voice said.  My first thought was that it was Guide, but no, that could not be, because Yeerks, and therefore most likely Yoort, could not communicate in thought-speak.

            I swung my stalk eyes around, searching for the source of the voice.  They finally rested on Guide's host body, the Isk, who was in the process of standing up.

            It was sickening, for me as an Andalite, to see the Isk move itself so that it could more easily see its Yoort counterpart squelch through the sludge.  The Isk waited hopefully for Guide to finish feeding and come back to his head, looking exactly like one of the disgusting voluntary Yeerk hosts.

            Was that you? Marco asked, staring stupidly.

            No, of course not, Rachel replied sarcastically.  I am getting very good at identifying human humor.  It was some other Isk that sounds exactly like Guide, she continued.

            What's your name? Cassie asked, obviously interested in knowing what the host felt like, being trapped inside its own body.

            I am Guide, it answered.

            Wait, Rachel said, but that–" she pointed at the slug that was Guide "–is Guide.

            He is Guide, I am Guide, the Isk responded.  We are one and the same.  Two bodies, but one person.  We have told you before that we are a truly symbiotic species, and cannot live without each other.  When an Isk and a Yoort are born, they are immediately assigned to one of the other species, and they stay with that other for the rest of their lives.  We end up staying together so long that we begin to think like each other, begin to act like each other.  It becomes so that there is more than just a physical need for us to be together, so that we do not die.  It becomes so that we _are _each other.  Two parts, one whole.

            I nodded, a very human gesture I picked up during my time on Earth.  Marco, however, had told me that it looked strange because I kept my stalk eyes still.  Yes, that makes sense.  But how can you stand having him in control?

            He is my best friend, a part of myself, Guide the Isk replied.

            He sounds like Mr. Tidwell talking about Illim, but much more, Cassie commented.

            Yeah, kind of, said Rachel.

            Although I knew that Guide the Isk and Guide the Yoort needed each other, I still had to turn my stalk eyes to the back and turn my head when Guide the Isk finally bend back down and accepted the worn into his head again.

            He stood up once more, Guide the Yoort in control and finally staying still, now that he was not starving.  

            I should be able to sell that memory for very much money, once I return home, Guide said, looking at us.  I do not think that anybody has ever experienced near-starvation before.  His diaphragm wheezed rhythmically.  And you all must still pay me your own memories!  I may be able to buy myself another corner by the time this is over.

            You are okay now, though?  You can travel with us? Jake asked.  I think that it would be best if we were to bring you back to camp.  You can wait there with Sandra, General Doubleday, Menderash, and most of the Murkra.

            Yes, the sooner, the better!  I cannot wait to get back to the Iskoort home world.

            We should go then, Rachel said.  Because the sooner we can kick butt on this One guy, the better!

            Whatever you say, Xena, Marco replied.  It was the normal talk that always took place before a mission.

            Indi, Tom, and Jeanne immediately jumped onto the nearest tree, and started moving up.

            Jake, Cassie called, we may be here for a while.  And after that there's the trip home.  More than three days.  We may want to bring the Kandrona with us.

            I looked at the Kandrona.  It was about the size of a human car.

Jake nodded.  Rachel?  Marco?  Can you get that?  

Rachel grinned with her Hork-Bajir face, and started to demorph.  Marco was not far behind her.  

In fact, Jake said, we should all demorph.  No sense in having to do it up in the trees.  He started his own demorph, and his dark green flesh became a pale pink.  

I watched as Tom and Jeanne jumped off of the tree and began demorphing as well.  Red tail feathers sprouted out of Tobias' tail as he became a red tailed hawk once more.  Cassie's blades sucked into her body, and curly black hair sprouted from her head.  The four blades on my tail melted into one large one as I started becoming Andalite again.  On Yahal, the first thing to change was his mouth, which simply sealed itself shut.  Blue fur soon covered it.

Because we don't have a time limit now, we might as well bring the Murkra again, Jake said as he continued the morphing process.  He stopped for a moment as his mouth reshaped into that of a human, and his fangs shrunk in size.  He finally continued, now speaking with mouth-sounds.  "Their claws may be useful in battle."

Rachel grinned brightly, but the effect was lost when her nose grew long and two teeth sprouted out and speared upwards.  She was morphing elephant, her strongest morph.  Marco's face was turning black and rubbery as he began his gorilla morph.  I did not know how they expected to carry it, but they were both very strong animals and I was sure that they could manage.

Marco walked in front of the cylinder that was the Kandrona and started pulling.  He could not get it to move.  However, then Rachel stood behind it and started pushing.  Slowly, it started rolling in the direction they wanted it.  It picked up a bit of speed, but the process was still very slow and time consuming.  The rest of us, except for Toby and Indi who jumped through the trees above us, and Tobias who flew through the air, walked alongside it.

"So, Guide, the Iskoort have no memory of being brought to the Iskoort home world first by the Murkra and then the Garatron?" Cassie prodded.

No, nothing, he answered.  Because of this, I could sell this information and become very rich!

Rachel rolled her eyes.  "Oh, brother."

I was confused.  From what a could tell, Yahal was similarly so because he voiced my thoughts.  Rachel, he said, I did not think that you had a brother.

Marco laughed.  "Yahal, it's an expression!  She doesn't really have a brother.  She was just saying that."

Ah, Yahal answered.  But if she doesn't why does she say she does?

"Nevermind," Marco said, laughing.  "Just forget it."

            With one final confused look at me, Yahal stopped talking about that.  We continued in silence, a strange group of aliens traveling together, a large machine that used to feed evil rolling in front of us.


	12. Marco

A/N:  Okay, so I was not going to originally put any of what is in the next chapter into the story, although I wanted to, because I did not think that you wonderful readers (who hopefully review!) would like it, but you have been asking/begging/hinting at/for it, so here it is!  Yeah, anyway, you'll realize what "it" is by the end of the chapter, I hope.  Also, I would like to thank The Wandering Blue Andalite for encouraging me to do this.  And thank you to Lady Lupin for helping me out with how to go about writing one part, and giving me a great quote.

Chapter 12

            My muscles were aching, even though I had always thought of my gorilla morph as tireless.  Rachel in her elephant morph and I had been moving the Kandrona for nearly an hour and a half, and we still had quite a ways to go.  

I just hoped that by some miracle, some of the muscle burn would translate into my human body.

I realized I had said it out loud, however, when Rachel said, Aw, poor little Marco doesn't think that his human body is buff enough?

I glared at her, but started laughing when I watched her try to bat her elephant eyes at me to show that she was joking.  Elephant eyelids just do not bat.

Hey, Bird-Boy, how much further do we have until we get to the Hork-Bajir camp? I called up to Tobias, hoping that he would have good news and say that it was not far.

Not that far, my friend, but at the rate you guys have been moving, it might take a while, Tobias replied.

Great, I complained.  Why are Rachel and I doing all of the grunt work?  All of you just get to walk alongside us while Xena and I work our butts off!  Jake, can't you go rhino and help us out for a bit?  Cassie, you have a chimp morph!  Tobias?  Ax!  C'mon, help us!

"Sorry, buddy," Jake laughed, "but I'm just fine as is."

Some friend you are, I muttered under my breath.  

Stop complaining, Marco, Rachel said.  It's not that bad.

Easy for you to say! I joked.  You weigh a few tons, all muscle.  I'm only Marco, the super monkey!

Haha, she laughed.

"We can take a rest if you want," Jake said.  "You two will need to demorph soon anyway."

Thanks, I responded.  

I moved away from the Kandrona, and started the change.  I felt the layers of muscle that made the gorilla so strong melt away, leaving me with weak again.  My spine straightened, and my chin and brow ridge receden.  My rubbery snout hardened and pushed out to become my human nose.  My fur withered away, and I stood up, human once again.  I looked at Rachel just in time to see her completing her morph, and her ropy tail suck back into her spine.

"Now that was a nice look," I commented.

She rolled her eyes at me.

"Is that the camp?:" Cassie asked Indi, pointing at what looked like a bunch of wooden platforms just barely visible past the trees."

"Yes."

"It can't take that long to get there then.  Here, Jake and I can morph rhino and help you."

"Thanks so much for volunteering me," Jake said sarcastically, but then his stern face broke into a lopsided grin that he couldn't hide anymore.

"Wait," I said, "since when did you have a rhino morph?" I asked Cassie.

"Since we had to break up the meeting with all of the world leaders at the Hyatt, remember?" she reminded me.

"Oh.  Yeah."

We stood and chatted a few minutes longer, and then we morphed again.  We managed to move much more quickly with Cassie and Jake helping as well.  Only half an hour later, the camp, our ship, the Hork-Bajir, and the Murkra and the human who could not morph became clearly visible.  The Murkra were gathered in small groups, probably talking, and Menderash and General Doubleday were standing together, the sun glinting off of Menderash's bald head.  He had lost his hair as payment for one of the Iskoort finding Guide for us.  Sandra stood by herself, her face thoughtful.  She smiled suddenly about something, her eyes looking dreamily into nothingness.  They were all very absorbed in what they were doing, so they did not notice as we pushed the Kandrona right next to the ship, on the opposite side from them.

Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and I demorphed into or own human selves, and everybody who had been with us, including Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, Yahal, Toby, Guide, Indi, Ax, Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, and I, walked around the ship.

"Hey, wuzzup?" I said.

General Doubleday looked at us and smiled warmly, and then waved.

Menderash nodded his head stiffly, smiled faintly.  He was still getting used to human facial expressions.

Sandra's head snapped to side so she could look at us.  Her face lit up with a huge grin.  "Oh, my gosh!  You're back!  Are you okay?  Where's Guide?" she exclaimed, running toward us.  

I smiled back at her.  Not only was she very pretty, but she was also smart, funny without meaning to be, appreciated my jokes, shorter than me, and energetic.  I liked that.

She reached me and gave me a hug.  I hugged her back, holding her close.  She blushed, and I guess she felt self-conscious because she went around and hugged everybody else too.

"Guide's fine," I replied.  "On the other side of the ship is a Kandrona that we found at the site of the old Yeerk Pool.  Ax-man and Yahal here was able to get it booted up so Guide could eat.  We brought the Kandrona with us because we figured that it'll be more than three days before we can get him home.  Of course, it was mostly me that got it here, with my gorilla morph," I bragged, flexing the muscles in my human arm.

She smiled and shook her head, rolling her eyes.  Okay, so she thought that it was funny, but she didn't believe me.

"Right, Marco, all you," Rachel said, sarcasm dripping off of every word.  "And Jake, Cassie, and I didn't help at all in our rhino and elephant morphs."  Trust her to ruin a perfectly good moment with me making Sandra laugh.

You _know_ Rachel did most of it, Tobias said smugly from his perch on Rachel's shoulder.

I grinned.  "Okay, so I had some help from _Xena: Warrior Princess_ and our fearless leader and Earth Mother over there.  But I could have done it myself."

"Whatever you say," Sandra said, laughing.

"Marco, you can stop hitting on Sandra now, we need to figure out how we're going to kick butt on the One," Rachel said, smirking.  Sandra turned beet red.

"Okay.  How are we going to do it?" I asked brightly, trying unsuccessfully to draw attention from the flush I knew was creeping across my own face.

Jake sighed, and got his "Jake look," which is the one he always gets whenever he thinks he has to make a decision that may end up in everybody dead.  He opened his mouth to say something, but Cassie cut him off.

"We haven't learned anything new, have we?  So, why do we need a new plan?  The only thing new is more time to plan and the help of the Murkra."

Jake closed his mouth, blinked, and then said, "Okay, what Cassie says sounds about right.  Let's just sleep on it for a night, and we can decide what we're going to do."

He nodded like he was finished, so everybody in the group broke apart and started to walk off.

I looked at Sandra walking away.  "Sandra!" I called after her.  

She turned around to look at me.  I had no idea what I wanted to say to her, but I was stuck now.

I grinned, trying to hide my embarrassment.  "I just wanted to say that, uh," I searched my brain wildly for something to say to her.

She smiled brightly.  "Yes?  What did you want to say?"

I took a deep breath.  "I just wanted to say that I'm glad you, General Doubleday, Menderash, and the Murkra made it back alright."

"Oh."  Her face fell.

I paused for a second.  I had no reason to be nervous, because I could get any girl that I wanted back on Earth.  I was famous, rich, funny, and incredibly cute.  But still I felt butterflies all a flutter in my stomach.

"I also wanted to say that I might do a bit better tomorrow if I knew that I had a date to look forward to when I got back," I said with a grin and an exaggerated wink.

She was silent.  "Are you asking me out?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, I guess I am," I answered, looking at her hopefully.

Her face broke into a wide smile.  "In that case, I'd love to go out with you."

I smiled at her for a moment, and hesitated about what I wanted to do.  Then I leaned in and kissed her.

A/N:  Yeah, so, that was what "it" from the Author's Note at the beginning was!  A Marco/Sandra fluff scene!  Well, please tell me if you think she's becoming too Mary-Sue-ish, and I'll try to fix it in the future.


	13. Rachel

A/N:  For those of you who asked what a Mary-Sue was, it's basically a perfect girl.  She's beautiful, smart, funny, innocent, and spoiled and used to everybody pampering her.  She has a crush on one of the main characters, and every guy in the book usually has a crush on her.  She has no flaws, except for shyness, because she can never tell her crush that she likes him, thinking she is not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, etc. for them.  In Harry Potter fics, she is almost always Voldemort's daughter, or if not, related in some way to Malfoy, Snape, or Voldemort.  At the end of the story, she usually dies trying to save the character she likes.  With her last dying breath, she tells the character that she loves them, and there is a big, sappy, sickening scene where the character swears revenge for the love of his life and says goodbye to her body.  He then kills whoever or whatever killed the Mary-Sue.  Having a Mary-Sue in a fic is one of the worst things possible, because she is in no way original.  Also, sorry if I'm a bit slower getting chapters out now, but in addition to this one, I'm working on my original novel, a parody co-written with my friend Lnzy about two horrible teachers we used to have, and a companion to this trilogy which is Sandra's story.  When I post it, I'll let all of you wonderful, lovely, faithful reviewers know, because I think it will give you a better idea of who she is and convince you that she is not a Mary-Sue.  The story will only be one chapter long, but it will be one very long chapter.  Anyway, you can read the story now!

Chapter 13

            Early the next morning I woke up refreshed, although I had spend the night on the hard, lumpy ground with a pile of grass as my pillow.   I was used to sleeping for not very long in strange conditions by now, after spending the last six months of my life in a spaceship, and before that, in the Hork-Bajir valley.  Even if that did happen three and a half years ago, it still feels like only six months to me.  

No one else was awake yet, except for some Hork-Bajir moving around in the trees far overhead, and Captain Miaker and some other Murkra eating their frozen stores of broccoli.  Broccoli was actually an alien plant that was originally brought to Earth by the Mercora, the Murkra's ancestors.  That colony was eventually destroyed when the comet that killed the dinosaurs landed on their city, but the other colony that eventually became the Murkra survived.  Neither one ever knew about each other.

I heard a yawn behind me, and saw Jake stretch and wake up.  He rubbed his eyes blearily.  "I really don't want to wake up," he commented.

"Oh, just get over it," I chided him, standing up to go onto our ship.  Unless we were planning on eating bark with the Hork-Bajir, I thought that I should get some of the broccoli.  I stood up and walked onto the ship, helping myself to some of the recently thawed broccoli.  I made a face.  I didn't even really like cooked broccoli, but this was a few million years old, from what I had heard.  Oh, well, it looked fresh enough.

I brought over enough broccoli for all of the humans to eat breakfast, and placed it on a small rock nearby.  I realized that Tobias was no where to be found, so I guessed he was out hunting.  I had no idea what he could eat, but I figured that if worst came to worst, he would be able to catch a _chadoo_.  The Andalites had plenty of grass to graze on.  I didn't know what the Isk part of Guide ate, but he looked alright, so I didn't worry about him.

            I munched on the vegetable for a few minutes until Marco and Cassie woke up.  I was sitting right in front of Marco, so the broccoli in my hand was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes.

            "Man, not broccoli again.  I promised myself that I would never even look at that again after we got back from the Cretaceous period," he whined.

            "Do you ever shut up?" I retorted.

            "For all you know, I could have been quiet the entire time you were dead."

            "Cassie!" I called.  "Did Marco ever shut up when I was dead?"

            "No," she replied, smirking.

            "You weren't supposed to tell her that," he said, facing Cassie.  She laughed at him, and, after a minutes, he did too.  I smiled and handed them both enough broccoli to last them until lunch.

            If we lived until lunch.

            Sandra, Menderash, General Doubleday, Tom, Jeanne, and Santorelli awoke a few moments later, and soon Tobias returned from his hunt.  We ate, chatting about everything.  Amazing how normal your conversations can be, no matter how strange your life has become.  Sandra and Marco sat next to each other, quite close.  I grinned when I realized that he had finally her out.  Good for him, it was about time.

            We finished breakfast, and everybody that had been on the _Jahar II _and the _Rachel_, Sandra, Captain Miaker, and Guide all gathered together for a meeting to decide what we were going to do about the One.  However, I agreed with Cassie, and thought that we should basically do the same as we were going to do:  Go after him and hope for the best.

            Jake rolled his eyes when he saw how many people there were at the meeting.  I decided that it was because he had always been annoyed with so many people at the meetings in the Hork-Bajir valley, so he must be going through the same thing here.  Too many people with too many agendas.

            "Okay," he said, "we need to do something.  What do we do, and when?"

            "Now," I volunteered.  "And we can just do what we were going to do yesterday."

            Marco raised his hand.  "Do we have to do this?" he asked.  "I mean, it seems like every time we run into something without a solid plan, we end up screaming and bleeding and running away with our tail between our legs.  It's just not fun."

            I grinned.  "What do you mean it's not fun?  It's the greatest part of our little job as Animorphs!"

            "She's crazy I tell you!" Marco exclaimed.  "Crazy."

            Jake looked confused.  "We can't do anything else, really, because we don't know enough about the One.  The only things we know about him are from Ax, and he thinks that the only way to defeat him is mentally, in games, and that was millions of years ago when he was Father.  So this is pretty much the only thing to do, right?"

            Cassie paused, and then nodded.  Marco, as much as he complains, knew Jake was right, and he nodded too.  

            I'm ready, Tobias said.

            All the other morph-capable people, and Toby, agreed.  Even Captain Miaker went along with us.  I guessed that it was because he wanted revenge on the Garatron.  Only Ax was silent.

            "Ax?" Jake asked.

            Ax looked down, shuffling his hooves.  He didn't say anything.  We all looked at him expectantly.

            It is not our place to do anything, he finally said, his stalk eyes facing the ground.

            I snorted, and rolled my eyes.  Jake gave me a warning look.

            "Why not?" he asked, trying to appear calm, but sounding slightly annoyed anyway.

            The One is on Hork-Bajir soil now, Ax replied.  He is no longer our problem.

            That made me angry.  "What do you mean he's no longer our problem?  He's going to keep chasing us until he absorbs us or we destroy him.  And anyway, he dragged the _Kelbrid_ into this, so now there's an infringement of the treaty between you people and the Garatron.  It's not just the Garatron that came into Andalite space either, it's you who was brought there and Yahal who came willingly.  It is your problem, and therefore it's our problem, too," I exploded.

            "One for all and all for one," Marco joked, smirking.  But I could still tell that he still agreed with me.  For once.

            Ax turned his stalk eyes away, and slumped his back.  He was quiet.

            "There's more, isn't there?" Cassie asked quietly.  She looked at him imploringly.  

            Ax did not move for a moment, but then slowly nodded his head.  You do not understand.  The One is more powerful than you think.  Being absorbed by him is… Being absorbed by him is horrible.  Living hell.  You are alone, except for him and his tortures.

            Cassie nodded, her eyes empathetic.  She always knew what to say.  "If we can do something about it, though, we have to, right?  We all know that the Hork-Bajir cannot deal with this on their own.  No offense, Toby.  So we have to help."  

            Don't you understand?!  There is nothing you can do! Ax yelled.  I jumped.  Ax never yells.

            "It would be the honorable thing to do."

            It looked like a shudder ran through Ax's body.  He then stood straighter and held his stalk eyes up.  Painfully, slowly, Ax said, I know.  I will do it.  I will follow Jake, my prince.

            I smiled.  Cassie had an effect on him.

            Jake jerked as though he had just been startled.  I decided that he had not thought of himself as anybody's prince for years.  Ever since I died.

            "I guess that it's decided then!  Let's go get ourselves absorbed by the One!" Marco said brightly.  

We all laughed, and everybody who could not morph, minus Toby, wished us luck and said goodbye.  It was much more emotional than the last time, because we were not so rushed by trying to save Guide.  With a final hug for all of us from Sandra, we turned around and left to once again go and try to defeat a monster.

A/N:  Please review?  Please?  I love reviews, especially when you review every single chapter!  Reviews make me soooo happy!  *Stares dreamily into computer screen that shows reviews on The Carried*  Oh, and if you leave your email or leave a signed review, I will email you whenever I update.  Thanx!


	14. Jake

A/N:  I'm tired.  And I would like to thank Nicole for emailing an idea, which I think I will be able to use, but differently than she expects, in the next book.  Oh, and did all of you know that third quarter absolutely, positively sucks?  So does writer's block…  But yay, I *finally* had an idea, which will work very well.  Yay!  You know, it's kind of funny, I just keep adding onto this author's note, each time I work on the chapter…  hmm…  Oh, well.  I know how much you guys love hearing from me anyway…  *Cough*  Okay, so maybe you don't care and just want to get onto the fic……..  I feel so unloved….  Lol.  Anyway, here it is!  The long-awaited chapter 14!

Chapter 14

            We had been walking for over an hour now, instead of swinging through the trees as Hork-Bajir because Captain Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon could not morph.  I was walking with Marco, Cassie, Ax, and Rachel, and Tobias flew above us.  Santorelli and Yahal were talking, as were Toby and Indi.  The three Murkra walked together in their own little group.  

Standing a bit further away was Jeanne and Tom, holding hands.  Again.  I grinned.  Tom hadn't even been alive again for a year, and he already had himself a girl.  

I reached down and took Cassie's hand, squeezing it.  She squeezed back, and I felt the pewter ring I gave her for our engagement around her finger.  

I smiled as I ran through our plan over and over again.  The more I thought about it, the more my smile faded.  We had no idea what we were going to do.  I wondered how we were going to come out of this alive.  Now, I knew, did not just think, that I would never forgive myself if I got any of my friends killed.  Each time I ran through the scene, I changed it slightly, trying to find out how we could beat the One.

Even in my imagination, the One won every time.

I sighed heavily, and Cassie looked at me, concern etched in her eyes.

"I'm okay," I said, smiling reassuringly.  She frowned, but eventually turned back to the conversation she, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, and Marco were in.

"…All I'm saying is that this majorly bites.  Why is it always _us _who get stuck saving the universe?  I mean, come on!  We were only thirteen when we were dragged into the Yeerk war, except for Ax, but he was just a kid too.  And now we're only nineteen and a half, with the exception of Rachel, who is still sixteen because she _died _in the last war, and Ax, who is six and a half years older than he was when he started the Yeerk war.  Jeez, can't the Fates give us a break?"  Marco stopped complaining and rolled his eyes.

"It's not that bad," Rachel said, grinning.  She was anticipating meeting up with the One.

"Says you, Xena," Marco shot back.

She grinned cockily at him, and he rolled his eyes again.

It really isn't, though, Tobias added. You were bored, back on Earth, Marco.  And having Rachel back  and fighting is a heck of a lot better than moping around in the forest without her.  I mean, yes, we are going to get our butts kicked, but at least we had some good times leading up to it.

"Such confidence!" Marco exclaimed sarcastically.  "You really know how to motivate the crowd."

Haha, Tobias laughed in response.  Well, it is true.

"Ugh.  You people are insane!"  Marco commented.  "We're all going to die, and you're happy about it.  Tell me again: Why do I hang out with you people?"

Because if you didn't, you would be trapped on an alien planet without any other humans? Ax offered.  I peered at him, wondering for the hundredth time if Ax had possibly developed a sense of humor.  A very bad, twisted sense of humor.

Marco sighed, exaggeratingly shaking his head.

Suddenly, Tobias shouted down to us, Careful, you guys!  There's a group of  Garatron right over there on the other side of the tree!  Oh, shoot, they're looking your way.  Freeze.  Freeze!  Okay, I don't think they're looking anymore.  Just a second, I'm coming down so they don't see me.  I don't think Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar is very happy with me.  His stalk eyes are still all bandaged up from when I got them before…

Still frozen, I slowly looked up at Tobias, who was swooping silently down on us.  Rachel held out her arm, and Tobias landed on it in a flurry of feathers.  She grimaced as his talons dug into her skin, but hid her pain quickly.  

"Alright," I said quietly, "go Hork-Bajir or _chadoo_, whichever one you have.  Captain Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon, stay low and out of the way.  We don't want them to see you, yet.  We want to have a peaceful negotiation, if possible."

"Negotiate this," I heard Rachel mutter as Tobias fluttered off her arm and she began to morph Hork-Bajir.  Grinning, I began my own morph, thinking, _Rachel is back, for good._

            This time, the first thing that happened was that my skin became runny, but then turned hard, like leather.  It's color change slowly from a pale tan to dark green.  I blinked, and when my eyes opened, my eyesight was subtly different:  I could see some frequencies of light I could not see as a human.  My lips hardened and pushed outwards, taking my melting and rapidly reshaping nose with them.  They soon formed the tough Hork-Bajir beak.  My chin collapsed, and I felt a slight itching sensation as my hair withered into my head and three hard horns shot out of my head.

            SPROOT!  SPROOT!  SPROOT!  SPROOT!

            I looked down and saw razor-sharp blades shoot out of my elbows and wrists.

            Glancing at Marco, I saw him grinning at me with a still mostly-human face.  However, just then, his neck elongated, sending his face up into the sky.  Then his face bulged out as his beak formed.

            Cassie was already almost completely Hork-Bajir.  She was always a faster morpher than the rest of us, so as soon as spikes grew out of her tail, she was completely finished.

            CRACK!

            My knees reversed direction.

            SLOOP!

            New organs formed and old organs dissolved into nothingness.

            I looked at Rachel just as her eyes turned red.  She smiled with the Hork-Bajir mouth.  She was enjoying every second of it.

            Ax looked strange.  As I watched, a long horizontal wound spread across his chin:  His mouth.  I shuddered, thinking of the first time we had seen the One, and he had taken on Ax's form.

            Tobias actually did not change as much as the rest of us.  When our mouths and feet were reforming into beaks and talons, he was simply growing and losing his feathers.

            I felt powerful as my shoulders broadened and muscle layered over muscle.  I could move anything.  The morph completed as a tail sprouted out of the base of my spine.

            We stood together, a motley collection of six identical Hork-Bajir, that Hork-Bajir's genetic daughter, one other Hork-Bajir, four identical _chadoo_, and three Murkra who were trying to stay out of the way.

            We need to look like a normal group of Hork-Bajir, I said, trying to look like I knew what I was doing.

            I didn't.

            Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Yahal, go one at a time.  It's going to look strange if a big pack of identical _chadoo _pass at once.  Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Marco, Ax, Indi, and Toby, we're just going to have to look as normal and innocent as possible.  Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon?  Just stay low, and try to get past them without them seeing you, I ordered.

            Tom slunk forward first.  As he neared, he sprang into a tree, and crept over the Garatron's heads.  Jeanne, Santorelli, and Yahal soon followed him.

            When it was time for the people in Hork-Bajir morph to go forward, Indi led the way, with Toby close behind.  The rest of us followed quietly, trying hard to stay hidden by the trees to hide the fact that we were all identical copies of Toby's father, Jara Hamee.  As we went right overhead, I saw Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar's ugly face directly below us.  One of his stalk eyes was swollen, bruised, and wrapped tightly with some sort of bandage.  Blue blood stained it in some places.  Tobias had gotten him good.

            However, I did not see the Garatron the One had absorbed.  It must have been somewhere else, away from the Garatron. 

            And then Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar's remaining, unhurt stalk eye looked up.  Directly at us.

            I froze.

            Marco, who had been behind me, warned me, Jake, buddy, you need to keep moving.  He's going to wonder why you stopped.  Move!

            His words shook me out of my trance, and I continued swinging through the trees.  Only another fifty feet until I made it to where Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Yahal were already waiting for me.  Okay, I said to Marco, but make sure you don't go right through their main line of vision.  We don't want them to think that they are having double-vision.

            Whatever you say, O Fearless Leader, he teased as he ran another thirty feet up the tree he was on.  Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Ax were spread out around us.

            Thirty feet.

            Fifteen.

            Ten.

            And then I was safely across.

            I grinned at Tom with the Hork-Bajir beak, and looked back to watch Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax make it safely to our side.

            We can demorph now, I told them, and immediately started to shrink as I went back to human morph.  Through my changing eyes, I saw Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon trying to get past the Garatron unseen.

            One of the Garatron separated from the rest of its group and started running toward the Murkra.  It was so fast that I could not see anything but a blue blur.

            R- I started to say, but just then my thought speak cut out.

            "Run, Captain Miaker!" I tried to say, but it came out as "Rur, Keptihg Makrer!" because of my changing mouthparts.  It was then that I saw my fatal mistake.  While we were in midmorph, we were helpless.  For the most part, Tobias, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, Tom, Santorelli, Jeanne, and I would be helpless in our natural forms as well.  Only Toby, the three Murkra, Yahal, and Ax had any sort of natural weapon.

            Captain Miaker, with his many constantly opening and closing eyes, soon saw the Garatron, which still had not seen him.  He started scuttling as fast as he could away, but he was only a big crab.  Crabs don't move that fast.

            I clenched my teeth as I completed my morph, and watched as the Garatron's gaze fell on Miaker.

            Murkra! Whatareyoudoinghere? Captain! Captain!

            The Garatron poured into the area where they were, and surrounded Captain Miaker, Leenear, and Raikon.  Without any other choice, I made my decision.

            "Attack."

            I could only hope that we would not be decimated.

A/N:  Yay!  The part you've all been waiting for!  The big battle with the Garatron!  Sorry it's taken so long to get out, I've been suffering from a minor case of writer's block.  However, I have it figured out now, so chapters should come out faster, if my teachers are willing….  Well, PLEASE review, because reviews make me happy, and I become more motivated to write!  I'm not saying that I'm requiring reviews if you want the next chapter, I'm just saying that I'll probably be quicker at writing it if I get reviews.  Anyway, I need a vote as to whether or not I should wear a grass skirt to the luau dance at school on Saturday.  Please tell me if I should in your review!  LoL.  Review!  Please!  Reviews make me happy!  Reviews!!!!!!!!  PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hehehe….  Yeah…..  Please review….  :-D


	15. Cassie

A/N:  Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everybody!  Okay, I know that it probably won't be Saint Patrick's Day by the time I get this out, but Happy Saint Patrick's day anyway!  Top o' the mornin' to you!  *Ax smiles and tilts her green hat that says "Luck o' the Irish" on it, but does not notice that it's three thirty in the afternoon*  Oh, and guess what!  I HAVE 150 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!  ALL YOU WONDERFUL READERS WHO REVIEWED ARE MY FAVORITEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, sorry about that little cliffie at the end of the last chapter… I know, I'm evil, aren't I?  Sorry, but you had better get used to having cliffies, because the rest of this book is going to be one cliffie after another…  Just wait for the last chapter…  =)  And I would just like to remind you, reviews make me happy!  I only got eight reviews on the last chapter!  Please, please, please review!  

Chapter 15

Toby, Ax, and Yahal ran out into the fray, to help the three Murkra.  Indi stayed back, unsure what to do.  Blades flashed and claws snapped.  Garatron tails whipped forward, driving my friends into a tight clump.  The Garatron ran around them, so fast that I could not see anything but a blur.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at Tobias, Rachel, Marco, Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Jake, and then I began to morph to wolf.  I morphed as quickly as I could, and finished while my friends were still in midmorph.  Jake went tiger, Rachel grizzly, Tobias himself, Tom cobra, Jeanne leopard, and Santorelli rhino.  Marco was going Hork-Bajir again.  This was not a job for pure muscle, which was what his gorilla morph was.  He needed teeth, blades, and claws like the rest of us.

Without waiting for the rest of my still-morphing friends, I leaped into action.  Until that point, I had remained hidden by the bushes surrounding us.  Standing outside the circle of Garatron, I bared my teeth and growled softly, blocking the path of the next alien.  It loomed up in front of me, and stopped.  I snapped at its feet in front of me.

Suddenly, I yelped as another Garatron came up behind me, and whipped its tail into my haunches.  A long, deep gash appeared along my side.  My blood poured onto the grass.

Snarling, I tried to pull myself to my feet.  I was hurt badly.  Were those my intestines spilling onto the ground?

The Garatron moved back in, holding its tail high, to finish me off.  Inwardly, I was shaking.  Who were these creatures, these creatures that moved so much faster than any Andalite, that were so fierce?  Nothing I had fought before, except for the Howlers, were this tough.

Weakly, I lunged forward and tried to rip at something.  It stepped easily out of the way.  With a malevolent, triumphant expression, it started to whip its tail down.

I whimpered as I realized that my time had run out.  I was going to die here, on a planet light years away from home.  However, my feelings of dread disappeared.  After all, the sun was warm, and the grass was blue.  A cute little _chadoo _frolicked above us.  I allowed myself to rest, thinking how nice it would be to sleep.

The tail came sailing down.

            A mix of black and orange leaped over my head, knocking the Garatron away, and ripping its throat out.

            The tiger came to rest in front of me.  Cassie!  Morph out.  Morph out now!  You're losing blood.  You're very badly hurt.  You will die if you do not demorph.  Morph.  Now!

            Hello, Jake!  I said in a sing-song voice.  I remembered Jake.  I loved Jake.  Jake was my fiancé.  In my clouding mind, I saw me and him hugging each other.  The picture became kind of hazy, blurry.

            Cassie! Jake's voice finally cut through to my consciousness.  He was battling another Garatron, and losing badly.  He was being pushed further into the circle with Ax, Yahal, Toby, and now Jeanne and Tom.

            I jumped.  Pain, so much pain.  And blood.  With all my will, I focused on my own, human body while a slaughter took place around me.

            My own vulnerable human skin replaced the rough wolf fur.  My insides went back into my body.  As soon as I became human, I remorphed to wolf.  I could think clearly again.  I was scared to death.  It had been way too close of a call for me, and while I had been laying on the blue grass, my friends had been battling for their lives.  They still were.

            And the battle was not going well for them.  

            They were fighting as well as they could, but the ten or so Garatron circling them was too much.  They were all bleeding from small cuts all over their body, as well as a few larger ones.  So far, two Garatron had fallen.  It was too much for me.  We were supposed to be trying to negotiate.

            Stop! I screamed.

            No one even flinched.

            Please, Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, stop this.  You are fighting members of your brother species.

            He swiveled his one unhurt eye around the scene, where the battle was still raging.  He had been overlooking the battle, but he had made sure to remain in some thick bushes, where Tobias could not get him again.  

Who'sspeaking? he demanded.

            I ran around the fight, my heart breaking as I saw the pools of red Earth blood, blue Andalite blood, green Hork-Bajir blood, and purplish-blue liquids that I assumed were Murkra blood.  I am, I answered.

            Stopfightingthem, the Captain ordered his fellow Garatron.

            They froze, holding their deadly tail blades facing my bleeding, wounded friends.  If they so much as moved, they would be lacerated.

            Whatdidyousay?

            I tried to stop my shaking body.  I had to play this right, otherwise my friends would die, while I was running away, again, kind of.

            Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, sir, those are your cousins you fight, the Andalites.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to slow my breathing, and lower my hackles.

            ThosearenotAndalites. ThoseareMurkra, he said, motioning toward Leenear, Raikon, and Captain Miaker.  He completely ignored Yahal and Ax.

            Yes.  Those are Murkra.  However, the other aliens, the blue ones that look slightly like you, those are Andalites.

            Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar said nothing.

            Inwardly, I took a deep breath.  The Murkra took you from paradise thousands of years ago, right? I asked, hoping I was saying all this right.

            Yes. Butthatispossiblymyth.

            They did not take all of you.  There were still many left on that planet.  They evolved into Andalites.  Your cousins.

            He was silent.

            All of a sudden, I felt that something was wrong.  I whipped my head around, just in time to see Rachel charge forward, trying to get out of the circle, where she would not be as vulnerable.

            Rachel, no! I cried.  It was too late.

            Itwasatrap! Attackthem! Attackthemnow!  
            His tail sailed towards me, and I rolled away.  

Once again, the other Garatron fought my friends.  Once again, it was a massacre.  

This is insane! Marco yelled.  I had to agree.  The world consisted of nothing but flashing blades, snapping claws, gnashing teeth, and flailing claws.  We were losing badly.

We fought for another ten minutes, and we were separated and pushed into smaller circles.  It was almost over.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Garatron in front of me dropped, a long spear sticking out of its chest.

What? I asked stupidly.

Two more Garatron fell, spears in various parts of their anatomy.  Other spears flew through the air.  The scent of Hork-Bajir drifted to my nose.

What? I repeated.

The air was thick with spears, but whoever was throwing them were not aiming them at us.  The Garatron ran, but there were so many sharp points everywhere, their speed could not help them.  After another Garatron fell, Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar gave the order to retreat.

Wewillgetthemlater! Now,wemustrun. TheOnewillunderstand,andhewilldestroythemiftheycometooclose. Retreat!

Almost as soon as they had come, the Garatron disappeared and the spears stopped coming.  A Hork-Bajir dropped from a tree, followed by about six others.  Indi was the second to jump down from the tree.

I shook my head, trying to clear my senses.  Too much had happened too quickly for me to comprehend it all.  In the past half an hour, I had gone from sneaking quietly around the Garatron to fighting the Garatron to nearly dying to trying to negotiate to battling again to watching the Garatron flee.

I looked back at the new Hork-Bajir, and recognized them as Lorn, Ink, Burg, Fed, and a few others I had not seen before.

What? I said, again, now feeling quite stupid.

"Indi see you in trouble.  Need help.  Indi get help," Indi said simply.

Thanks… I said, still trying to rid myself of the memories of the carnage, the memory of the one Garatron whose throat I had ripped out, the memory of…

I shook my head again.

Is everybody alri- I started to say, but stopped in mid-word.

My eyes had just rested on a bleeding, shapeless form hidden by some low bushes.

Wolf sight is not the best, but their sense of smell is second to none.  I could not see to be sure, but I knew one thing:  My nose told me that the bleeding body was dead.  And it was not a Garatron.

A/N:  Okay, that was chapter 15!  Wow, that was really violent…  It scared me writing it…  Please, please, please tell me what you thought in a review.  Oh, and for those of you who care, I did wear the grass skirt to the dance…  Let's just say I looked… interesting.  Yes, interesting is a good word to describe it!  Oh, well, it was lots of fun.  Also, I am working on starting my own fan fiction website.  However, I need fanfics to put on it!  If any of you would like me to post your works on my site, please email them to me at MyLittlePony204@hotmail.com.  They must be rated R or less, and I will be the one to decide the rating.  I will have sections for every section I have things for, so it's cool.  Also, if you have a songfic you want to send to me, if you send me a file that has the song on it or tell me where/how I get it, I will gladly make the song play in the background of the page your songfic is posted on.  Please send all emails with the subject "New Fanfic."  Thanks!  Now please review!


	16. Jake

A/N:  I'M FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  FREE AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yeah…  I was officially dismissed for spring break exactly thirty-six minutes ago!  Spring break is nice…  Spring break equals sleep…  Goodness knows I need it…  Last night, I got three hours, forty-five minutes of sleep.  The night before, I got two hours, fifteen minutes of sleep.  I AM SO EXHAUSTED!  Trigonometry projects, English papers, and history notes are EVIL!  Oh, well, it's over now, so it's all good.  Now I just need to go home and do a bunch of web authoring homework due today at 8:00 P.M.  But that's okay, because after that, I can sleep!  *Ax smiles happily, and closes her eyes.  She starts snoring quietly.*  And can you believe it?  Out of all Anifics updated in about the last six months, this fic has the most reviews!  This fic also holds the title as the continuation of the series with the most reviews, as well as having the sixth most reviews out of all the Anifics on the entire site!  If you guys are kind enough to give me 261 reviews total, this fic will have the most reviews of any Anific on FFN.  Please, you wonderful reviewers you, it's only 100 more reviews!  And I love you all for allowing me to get as many as I have already… I love all of you…  Yeah, okay, I'll shut up now and let you read the next chapter, because you probably want to know who died…

Chapter 16

            It was over.  Thank God, the battle was over.

            My tail hung by only a few tendons, but other than that, it was almost completely severed.  I could not use my front left leg.  Blood from zillions of cuts stained my fur a deep burgundy.  I could not see out of my right eye.

            Looking around, I could tell that almost everybody had fared just as badly, or worse, than me.  I was infinitely grateful to Indi for getting the other Hork-Bajir to come help when he did.  We owed him and the rest of the Hork-Bajir our lives.

            I started to demorph, and the rest of my friends soon followed.  There was Cassie, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Yahal, Jeanne, Tom, Toby,  Leenear, Raikon, and Miaker.

            Santorelli.  Santorelli was missing.

            As soon as Cassie became fully human, she made a beeline towards some short shrubs.  I followed her, but I was a bit slower, because my joints were still reversing and reshaping.

            "Uh… Just a second," Marco said, excusing himself from the large group and chasing after us.

            "Yeah.  What he said."  Rachel jerked a thumb at Marco, and then she followed us too.  Ax trotted behind them, and Tobias soared overhead.

            Cassie stopped and turned around, her eyes as big as saucers.  I reached her, and looked in front of me.  I turned around and retched.

            Marco, Rachel, and Ax came up just then.

            "Oh.  Oh, man," Marco said, going pale.  Rachel, Ax and Tobias, who was circling in the air above us, were quiet.

            In front of us was a rhinoceros, but it was barely recognizable as one.  Somehow, a Garatron had gotten its razor-sharp tail blade to Santorelli's, because that was who the rhino was, vulnerable stomach.  His entire body was split down the center, the wound growing narrower and shallower on his rib cage, but going extremely deep on his throat.  His entire stomach was a mess of red goo, and his body lay in a pool of blood.

            "Oh, my God," I heard myself say.  "Santorelli.  Santorelli, demorph.  Come on, demorph!"

            Cassie took my hand and squeezed it.  "He's dead, Jake," she whispered.

            Beside me, Marco, Rachel, and Ax lowered their heads.  Tobias swooped down and landed on Rachel's shoulder.

            "No, he can't be!" I said desperately.  In my head, I was reliving the final battle with the Yeerks, again.  Rachel killing Tom, the polar bear in turn killing Rachel, Jara Hamee's death…

            I looked down and noticed that my arms were shaking, and I had a cold sweat dripping off my brow.  Santorelli could not be dead.  He could not.

            I knelt down, and put my fingers on Santorelli's decimated throat.  I guess I thought that I could feel for a pulse, although I don't know why I though that, considering that rhinoceros anatomy is slightly different than human anatomy.

            Examining his body, I knew for certain:  There was no way possible that he could have survived.  He was dead.

            Cassie bent over and helped me to my feet.  My morphing outfit was filthy, soaked in the rhino's blood.  

            "Come on, buddy, it'll be okay," Marco said quietly.  Rachel nodded.

            "He died a warrior, fighting, with honor," Ax added.

            Jeanne, Tom, Yahal, Toby, the Murkra, and Indi with the other Hork-Bajir came up just then.

            "Is that…"  Jeanne said, her voice trailing off.  "Is that Sergeant Santorelli?"

            I nodded, unable to speak.  He was my student, one of the people I was responsible for.  And I let him die.  

            A tear trickled down from Jeanne's cheek, and she buried her face in Tom's shoulder.  She had, after all, known Santorelli better than the rest of us, because they had been students together.  Tom awkwardly patted Jeanne on the back.

            I felt sick.  He was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it.  Everybody probably hated me, for getting Santorelli killed.  I knew it.  I just knew it.

            "I… I'm sorry," I said weakly.

            Rachel looked up sharply.  "For what?  Because Santorelli died?  No.  That was not your fault.  It was not your fault, just like Tom and my deaths were not your fault.  Stop blaming yourself."

            Was she a mind reader, or what?  I cast my eyes down.

            Cassie squeezed my hand, giving me what comfort she could right then.  I held her hand tightly.  It was the only thing I had, then.  The only real thing that I knew that I could hang on to.

            After a few minutes silence, Marco spoke.  "What should we do with his body?"

            No one said anything for another minute or so, but finally Tobias broke the silence.  I guess…  I suppose we could bury him, or something.

            I listened to the slow conversation numbly, not understanding much of it until later.  I still could not get over the one fact that Santorelli was dead.  I noticed that I had a tear in my eye, clouding my vision.  Angrily, I wiped it away, not wanting anybody to know my weakness.

            "Dead Hork-Bajir go to Father Deep," Indi offered.

            Rachel raised her eyebrows at him.  "Huh?"

            Toby answered.  "It is a Hork-Bajir tradition that we give the dead down to Father Deep, and so we throw them over the edge."

            There was more silence.  If only somebody would say something, anything…

            Finally, Tobias said, Well, I guess it's better to fall and burn than to be buried for eternity…  He fluffed his wings.

            No one moved.

            Cassie looked at me, stood on her toes, and whispered into my ear, "Jake, they need you.  You are their leader.  We just suffered a terrible loss, and now we need direction."

            I said nothing.  There was too much nothing going on.  

            "I guess we should do that, then," I finally said, trying to shake myself out of my daze.  The people with me nodded, slowly, one by one.

            "Should we say something?  A prayer, maybe?" Cassie questioned.

            "Yeah," I said, "um, probably…"

            We were quiet, again, but then Jeanne broke the silence by saying a few things about what she knew about Santorelli.  Cassie said a short prayer.  Jeanne started to sing, and, one by one, we joined her.

            "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!"

            I felt my throat tightening, and then tears did come.  I looked around, and saw that everybody, even Rachel, also had wet, glinting eyes.  Ax and Yahal had their stalk eyes cast down, and their tails lowered as far as possible.  Toby stood at attention, and the three Murkra kept most of their eyes open.

            "I once was lost, but now am found.  Was blind, but now, I see."

            We stopped, not knowing the rest of the song well enough.  Ax, Yahal, Toby, and the Murkra, who did not know the song, stood quietly.  There were quite a few sniffles as people dried their eyes.

            Rachel began to morph to elephant.  She soon completed it, and quietly pushed Santorelli's torn, bloody body toward the cliff.  We followed her.

            There was a sickening tearing sound, and I turned to see the three Murkra short one leg.  The three they had torn off lay in a pile.  It was their way of mourning for the dead, the Mercora had told us when we met them sixty-five million years ago.

            We paused for a moment at the top of the cliff, and then Jeanne spoke.  "God bless, Sergeant Santorelli."

            With that, Rachel pushed the mutilated body off the edge, and it hurtled slowly into the poisonous mists below.

A/N:  There, you didn't actually believe that I could kill one of the Animorphs, did you?  Okay, well, maybe you did….  And I still might…  But not yet!  And thank you, some of you, for going and reviewing Lady Lupin's fic!  Because of you, she got her five reviews, and she only had to wait for me to finish this chapter for her to post!

Also, to WAZZUP GIRL, I would love it if you linked your site to this fic and The Contact.  It would make me very happy!  Also, if you could please give me the link to your site, I would love to visit it.


	17. Ax

A/N:  Okay everybody, I'm really, really, really sorry that it's been sooooo long since I updated, but I've been really busy.  You guys can thank Cassi (Lady Lupin), Vy (The Wandering Blue Andalite), Shawna (Ami of Destiny), Hanni (Hanni B), Cassie (morpherkidvb), and Jason for telling me to get off my butt and start writing.  I do have somewhat good reasons for taking so long, though!  My cousin and grandparents were visiting for a week over Easter weekend, and I haven't seen Chelsea (my cousin/best friend) in over two years!  And then, as a present to say "thank you so much for inviting me," Chelsea gave me a cold, which started bugging my asthma, causing me to be quite sick and miserable for the rest of the week.  I even had an asthma attack the Saturday after Easter that ended up with me in the hospital attached to a nebulizer…  And then, besides that, I've had a ton of homework, three other novels and one song fic I'm working on, and a lack of inspiration on this fic.  Don't get me wrong, I know almost exactly what's supposed to happen in this chapter, I'm just having trouble putting it into words…  And I'm also just kind of lazy, and have been reading instead of writing, and chatting instead of writing, and going to bonsai conventions instead of writing…  Speaking of which, guess what!!!!  Masahiko Kimura, the world's best bonsai artist, is going to write an article where he will mention me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's because he really liked my wiring technique on the tree I was working on in the convention I went to that he was at.  The article will be published in Japan's most widely-read bonsai magazine!!!  And in a few years, it will be translated into English and published in America's most widely-read bonsai magazine!  I'm so happy!  *Ax bounces around room from excitement*

Chapter 17

            Trailing slowly behind the others, I plodded along.  I was terrified.  The others were starting to understand the power of The One, because Santorelli's death had shaken them.  However, they still had no idea what The One was capable of.  Only I knew, because only I had been absorbed.  They did not know the boredom, or the vulnerability when all of your memories were open for The One to see.  They had no understanding of the fear when The One tortured you endlessly, mercilessly, for days on end, simply by watching your memories and thoughts, adding his cruel commentary and threatening your dreams, telling you the hopelessness of your situation.  Knowing he is right when he says that there is no possible way for you to be saved, because he will simply absorb any rescuers, and kill them or keep them alive, doing to them what he does to you.  Knowing that he twists your image, to terrify others who know you.

            I realized that I was shaking, and covered in sweat.  My friends were a good fifty yards in front of me.  I tried to calm myself by crushing some of the grass underfoot.  My hooves absorbed it, and I felt slightly better.

            Out of the corner of my left stalk eye, which had been facing behind and to the left of me, I saw something move behind the leaves.  I spun around with my tail raised high.

            There was nothing there.

            I remained still and kept my tail up.  I knew that I had heard something.

            Ax-man? Tobias called down from high in the trees.  Are you okay?

            Taking care not to move, I answered, I saw something, behind us.  Following us.

            Tobias did not answer right away.  You're sure, Ax?

            I nodded almost imperceptively, knowing he would be able to see the movement.  I kept myself alert and ready for the attack I thought was coming.  The attacker was hiding well.

            There was nothing there, Ax, Tobias said quietly.

            I did see something, I protested.  There had been something there.  There was…  I trailed off, realizing that I was not going to be able to convince my _shorm_.  He was certain of his two eyes, almost as certain as I was of my four.

            Tobias continued to watch me, to see if I would start following the others again.  After a moment, I did.  Even if I knew that there had been something following us, the others would not believe if Tobias had not seen anything.  I finally turned and followed my friends, shaking even more than before.

            "Ax, what's wrong?" Cassie asked when I finally caught up with them.  Her face was pinched with sadness and worry.  

            I'm fine, I replied quietly, lying to my closest friends.  Just fine.  I could not believe what I was saying.

            She eyed me warily, and I knew that she knew that I was not fine.

            Prince Jake opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but shut it again, and the same mask he had worn for the three years after the war and before Rachel and Tom were rescued descended on his face again.  He looked away.

            Marco looked as though he were struggling to find something funny to say, but was still dealing with Santorelli's death.  Marco knew him better than me, having spent six months on a spaceship with him.

            Rachel's face wore an expression of rage, I believe, and she kept clenching and unclenching her hands.  

            Above us, Tobias stayed mostly quiet.

            The Murkra remained apart, shuffling along and holding the oozing nubs where their legs had been gingerly.  They had not said anything since Santorelli's death.

            Tears streaking her face, Jeanne walked next to Tom, who was stiff and tense.

            Yahal traveled alone, his tail and stalk eyes drooping.  However, he kept a rigid, disciplined posture.

            Morosely I gazed around the valley again, swiveling my stalk eyes back and forth.

            There!  Something was moving again, under a dense cover of bushes.  I jumped high into the air and waved my tail menacingly.  The others watched me with fearful surprise, and Tobias swooped down low.

            "What was it?" Rachel demanded.  "What did you see?"

            There is something in the bushes following us, I replied with as much strength as I could muster.  I glared at them with my main eyes while keeping my stalk eyes vigilant and alert for any sign of movement.

            Prince Jake scanned the forest around us slowly, his face still a mask of despair.  Rachel jerked around, waiting for a fight.  Tobias landed on her shoulder.

            Ax-man, there's nothing here, he said, concern in his usually unemotional voice.

            I saw it! I exclaimed, my fear finally taking over and causing me to twitch and jerk uncontrollably.  I was on the verge of hysterics.  They just did not understand what The One was capable of, what he would do, how he could be anywhere…

            "Will you all please just shut up?!" Prince Jake roared.  

I flinched, and Cassie gasped.  She put her hand on his arm, but he angrily brushed it away as he stepped forward.  She turned around, trying to hide the tears that were finally pouring from her eyes.

            "Ax, cut it out.  We don't need any of this crap!  If Tobias says he didn't see anything, then there's nothing there.  He's a hawk, and has better eyes than you, even if he does not have as many.  I understand that you're afraid to face The One, but you need to pull together.  We need everyone!  I swear-"

            "Jake!" Tom snapped.  "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

            Prince Jake was quiet for a moment, his fury subsiding.  Finally, he answered.  "I…"  His voice quavered.  "I don't know.  Santorelli did not need to die.  It was my fault because I ordered you to attack.  I'm trying to make sure nothing else happens."  When he was finished, his voice cracked and his shoulders slumped.

            Tom turned to his brother and gathered him into a hug, patting his back.  We all watched the display uncertainly, not sure what was happening to our leader.

            Cassie finally turned to face us again, trying to hide the tear stains on her cheeks.  She gazed woefully at Jake.  When Tom finally released him, Prince Jake stood up again and looked at the rest of us, his look resting on Cassie.  She forced a smile, and put her hand on his arm.  He hugged her tightly, but released her quickly.  I assumed that it was a human gesture of apology.

            While the humans began to cope with their grief and each other, I looked around nervously.  I still knew that I had seen something.  It had been on the ground, so it could not have been one of the Hork-Bajir following us.  Involuntarily, I felt myself shudder.  I felt eyes on me, although I did not know where they came from.

            After a few moments, Jake took a deep breath.  Everybody looked at him expectantly.  The bright setting sun behind him set his face on fire.  The sunset was magnificent.

            "Well, folks, it's been a long day.  The sun's going down, so I suggest we stop for the night.  Goodness knows we need to rest, after…"

            We nodded, to show we understood.

            "I'll take first watch."  It was Rachel, of course.

            Jake nodded, and the meeting was over.  We could sleep, only to dream of today's misfortunes.

            I heard a sound again, and swiveled my stalk eyes as quickly as I could.  I saw a quick flash of retreating shadow, and then the area was clear once again.  My hearts beat faster, and I started to sweat.  By now, however, I knew better than to say anything.  I could only hope Rachel would be able to notice and warn us in time in case of danger.

            I lied down into the long grass, thoroughly exhausted from the horrors of that day.  With a final shiver of fear, I closed my eyes, and saw no more.

A/N:  Yeah, that was it.  I know it wasn't that good, but it will get better, I promise!  By the way, I have a favor to ask of some of you.  I think that I have two, but possible even three or four anonymous reviewers who review under the name of "Amber."  I am extremely grateful to you, but it gets so confusing reading my reviews!  Also, when I write a page of thank-yous at the end of this book, I need to know how many Ambers I need to thank.  Therefore, if there is any way possible, could all the anonymous Ambers start leaving an email address, or changing their name so that I can know which one is which?  Thank you soooo much for all the reviews you have given me already, but I would like to distinguish between you, and be able to write a thank-you to each individual after this story.  Thanks!


	18. Rachel

A/N:  Yeah, so, here's the next chapter!  And please go read my new fic, an Animorphs/HP crossover, The American Animagi.  :-D

Chapter 18

            People were exhausted, and soon I was the only one awake.  I sat down on a small long in the grass, a branch that had fallen down years ago.  Looking around the silent forest, I took a deep breath to think about the day's events again.  Santorelli, one of Jake's incredibly brave and smart students, was dead.  I shouldn't have gone for the Garatron when Cassie was talking to Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar.  I had to stop thinking about it now, though, because it was not the time for second-guessing.  What was done was done, and Sergeant Santorelli was gone.

            I heard a slight whisper of wind, and then Tobias landed in front of me.

            "Hey," I said, grinning.

            I thought that you might want some company, he said.

            "Thanks."

            Are you doing alright?  After, you know…

            "Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.  "You?"

            I think so.  I don't know about Jake and Ax, though.  I think Jake is blaming himself again, Tobias commented sadly.

            I rolled my eyes.  "Gee, do you think?  He really needs to get over himself.  It's a war, people die," I said, clenching my fists as I thought about my own death, so narrowly escaped.

            Tobias was silent for a minute, but finally spoke.  You shouldn't be so hard on him.  He's been through a lot.

            "No more than the rest of us."

            You are his cousin, and Tom is his brother.  James and his people were his responsibility.  He blames himself.

            "I guess," I said uncertainly.  "What do you think is happening with Ax?"

            Tobias was quiet again as the slight breeze ruffled his feathers.  Finally, he said, He's scared to death.  I think he might be seeing things.  I didn't see anything, and I was flying above you.  He was near some kind of heavy bushes, but still.  I think that whatever happened to him when he was absorbed by The One really shook him, and he's too scared about seeing The One again to think straight.

            Nodding, I imagined the battle that would take place soon.  If The One was scaring Ax that badly, he was my meat.

            I scanned the area around us again, looking to make sure that there were no Garatron lurking in the bushes.  There were none, so I turned back to Tobias.

            "So," I said, "are you looking forward to going back?"

            Who ever said we'll make it back? he answered darkly.

            "I do.  If we beat an empire, we can beat some puny all-powerful being."

            Tobias forced a laugh.  You're crazy, he said.  But assuming we do make it back, yeah, I'll be excited.  I haven't been in the real world for almost four years now.  Seven if you include the years during the war, but then I still talked with you guys.

            We had been traveling from earth for over six months.  I was almost seventeen.  The others were all almost twenty.

            "What are you going to do when we get there?" I asked.

            I don't know.  I suppose I'll go back to living normally, somewhat.  I'll still have to demorph every couple of hours, and I guess I won't ever grow very old in my human body.  Maybe I can go back to school, or teach ornithology at some college.

            I laughed.  "Yes, Tobias, you could definitely be the leading professor in the study of birds."

            As long as I've been a bird, I know everything.  All the colleges would want me, he commented smugly.  Besides, college girls love the feathers.

            "Hey, now," I said, still laughing but warning him a little.

            So what about you?  What are you going to do when you go home?  It's going to be big, after all, you're Rachel, the dead Animorph.  I mean, you saw how Sandra reacted when she saw you.

            I was silent for a minute.  Coming home was the moment I had been dreaming of for over six months, ever since I came three years into the future, when there was no Rachel Berenson alive anymore.

            "I just want to see my family," I finally said.  "I'm not sure Sara will even remember me that well.  She was only seven when I died, after all.  And I haven't seen Daddy since before we had to evacuate our houses when the Yeerks found out who we were.  Mom and I were on such bad terms when we left…  I know we made up, kind of, before the last battle, but it's not the same.  I hope she's not still mad at me."

            She's anything but angry, Tobias said, fluttering up onto my shoulder.  You have no idea how upset she was at your funeral.  I couldn't believe she let me take your – well, the Chee's hologram of your – ashes.

            I nodded absently and looked around the forest again.  The wind whispered through the trees, and small animals shuffled in the grasses and leaves.  The sky was dark and cloudy, foreboding.  Below us the purple gases of Father Deep swirled and glowed.  I could not see anything because of the velvety blackness of the night.

            "Tobias, can you see anything?  It's so dark, I know that I can't."

            He settled lower into my shoulder.  You forget, Rachel, that my eyes are nearly useless in the dark  I may be Supervision Bird-Boy in the day, but I can't see any better than you right now.

            Suddenly I felt a cold chill in my bones, and I shivered.

            Are you okay? Tobias said, his voice worried.

            "Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.  "Just kind of cold."

            Ah, he said, obviously disbelieving me.

            Changing the subject quickly, I said, "It's been about two hours.  Let's wake up Cassie."

            I stood up, and he shifted his wings a bit to retain his balance.  As I got close to the group, one of the sleeping forms sat up.

            "Has it been two hours already?" Jake asked.

            "Yeah," I answered.  "What are you doing awake?"

            He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.  "I haven't been able to sleep."

            See what I mean? Tobias asked in private thought-speak.

            "We were just going to wake up Cassie," I said.  "Time for me to get my beauty sleep."

            "I'll stay up with her," Jake offered.  "I need to apologize for earlier.  I'm just, uh, kind of stressed right now…"

            I nodded with what I hoped was a sympathetic grin.  It probably looked more like a sneer.  Jake, Tobias, and I went over to Cassie, and I shook her shoulder a bit.

            She sat up immediately.  She had been asleep, but obviously not sleeping very well.  We were all nervous and worried.  She saw me, nodded, and stood up.  She walked over to the log where Tobias and I had been, and Jake followed her.

            "Goodnight, Tobias," I said.

            He jumped off my shoulder and soared up toward the lowest branches one hundred feet above me.  See you tomorrow, Rachel, he said as he faded into the darkness.

            I sat down and tried to sleep.  Thoughts about the future, The One, Santorelli, and my friends' whirled through my head.  When sleep finally caught up with me, the same thoughts haunted my dreams.

A/N:  Okay, I know that this is still a slow chapter, and that the next chapter will be slow, too, but you guys have all heard the saying, "The calm before the storm."  Don't worry, it will become very exciting in just a few chapters.  Aren't you proud of me for getting this chapter out so quickly?  And thank you, Ambers, for starting to leave your emails.  It's very helpful.  Also, I believe I have a new beta reader!  Everybody give a big thank you to Lara, whose penname is mickEmousina.  Well, I'm going to go sleep now.  I'm tired.  PLEASE review!  And thank you to all who have already reviewed!  I love all of you!


	19. Cassie

A/N:  Woohoo!  As I'm writing this at 5:20 P.M. on Tuesday, April 30, I have 204 reviews!  Thank you so much!  My goal is to have 261, at least, reviews.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help me get that many and complete my goal!  PLEASE!  I REALLY LOVE REVIEWS!  Also, thank you to Lady Lupin, who is co-beta reading with mickEmousina.

Chapter 19

            Jake was behind me.  I knew it.  And so I continued on to the log where Rachel and Tobias had been sitting, hoping to escape from Jake.  I had thought that he was better.   But he was blaming himself again.

            I sat down on it facing away from the camp, away from Jake.

            "Cassie!" he called.  

Unable to ignore him any longer, I turned around.  

"Cassie."

I looked at him, and tried to smile.  For him, the guy I loved.

"Look, I'm really sorry about earlier…  I'm just so scared, and I keep replaying that battle over and over again.  There had to have been something I could do to save him.  I should not have let us get caught.  If I let him die when we were just up against the Garatron, what's going to happen when we fight The One?"

I felt my smile fall from my face.  How could he blame himself?  He was doing as well as he could, we all were.  He knew as little about The One and the Garatron as we did.  Our only source of information about The One was through Ax, and he was too petrified to talk about him.

"You will do just fine, Jake," I said softly.  "We all believe in you.  You got us through three years of war against a powerful, advanced empire, with only the six of us.  Not only that, but you saved the world.  You need to stay together for us, so we can beat this… this evil."  I meant every word I said.

"I wasn't able to save James and his people, Tom, or Rachel," he disputed.

I sighed deeply.  This was not going anywhere.  "Tom and Rachel did not die, though.  They're sleeping, right over there.  As for the auxiliary Animorphs, you tried to save them.  Nobody could have known how long it would take Marco and Ax to get to the weapons system and disarm the Dracon beams."

Jake let his gaze fall.  "There had to have been something I could have done."

"Jake," I said, my voice cracking, and I put my hand on his shoulder.  "You were unable to do anything.  Anyway, Tom and Rachel are alive again, and right over there."

He lifted his head and gazed in the direction of my fingers, and watched the sleeping forms for a minute.

"I just don't know what to do.  I'll just kill somebody again," he finally said bitterly.

"Look at me," I commanded, miserable.

He didn't move.

"Look at me!"  I sobbed.  I felt tears pouring from my eyes like a leaky faucet as I shook him, trying to make him understand.  Where was Jake, my Jake, the one that I fell in love with?  The man in front of me was Jake, but somehow…  different.  This one was always upset, blaming himself.

The other Jake had sometimes second-guessed his decisions, yes, but never like this.  The new Jake that I was looking at was a shell of the old one, a new Jake that was in serious clinical depression.

"What happened to you?" I asked him, my voice quiet.

He finally looked at me, his eyes weary and tired.  After a minute or so, he answered, "I don't know, Cassie.  I just don't know."

Not believing that I was actually telling him all this, I said, "You're clinically depressed, I think.  You need help.  When – if – we make it back to earth, you will go see a doctor, and get some sort of anti-depressant.  You need it, Jake."

"I know," he answered.  "I already promised Tom I would."

Slowly, I nodded.  He lifted his hand and brushed away the tears on my cheeks, and smiled.

Smiling back at him through my tears, I put my hand over his.  He pulled me close and we hugged.  He would be okay, eventually.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes, accepting each other's unspoken apologies, but then a deep, resounding noise reverberated through the camp, followed by a higher, shorter pitch, and then another, deeper than before.

One by one, the Hork-Bajir stirred.  Indi jumped out of the tree onto the ground, listening.  

"What is it?" I asked.

"Speaking Trees," Indi answered.

Jake and I exchanged a confused look.

"Speaking Trees tell about other tribes.  Say Hork-Bajir in next valley die.  Andalite-monster kill.  All Hork-Bajir gone.  Andalite-monster fast.  Kill more Hork-Bajir.  Look like Hork-Bajir, too." Indi said, translating the Speaking Trees for us.

            "The One," Jake hissed.

            "More?  Already?" I asked to no one in particular.  "He's like some sort of fast-moving bacteria!"

            Jake nodded his head in agreement.  "We have to get moving, then.  The sooner we find him, the sooner we stop him and he'll stop absorbing Hork-Bajir."

            "Right," I agreed, glad that he was making decisions again.  The two of us moved back to the clearing and one by one, shook the others awake.  In muted tones, we told them what the Hork-Bajir had told us.  Rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, they sat up, and we started going towards the valley where The One was last seen.  Inwardly, I smiled.  Who knew if we would survive this?  But if we did, Jake would get help, and he would be fine.

A/N:  PLEASE review!  PLEASE!  Also, loons are the coolest animals ever, and radioactive loons will take over the world!  And, I would just like to say that two out of the four (including me) girls in my carpool are female dogs.  As I'm sitting here writing this, they're typing messages to each other on their computers, making fun of the very nice lady who picks us up on Mondays, the music the lady listens to, and the car she drives.  Can you say stuck up?  Ugh, I hate them.  Just thought I'd tell you guys.  :-P


	20. Marco

A/N:  School is evil, very evil.  I don't like homework.  Homework is horrible.  Especially web homework that makes no sense because the teacher does not teach us.  Grr….  Also, you know what's really cool?  I learned how to say two words in Mandarin Chinese today!  I can now say "tie-dye" and "chemistry" in Mandarin.  It was because my school has a sister school in Beijing, and there are a few students and teachers here right now.  Today, the Chinese chemistry teacher taught my chemistry class, and we tie-dyed handkerchiefs because tie-dying is a traditional Chinese art.  It was funness!  And sorry about the shortness of these chapters…  It's just because I'm coming to the end of this story, so don't worry, the chapters in the next book will be longer.  There's only another two chapters after this one left.  Also, school starts about five hours too early.  Grr…

Chapter 20

            "My feet hurt," I complained.

            "Get over it, Marco," Rachel said back.  "You got two more hours of sleep than Cassie, Tobias, Jake, and me, and we've only been walking for three hours."

            "Fine.  I'm tired, then."

            Rachel rolled her eyes, and I shot her a grin.  I was doing my job as myself:  Make the other people laugh.  

I looked around at my friends and saw them all talking in muted tones.  The large red giant sun was just starting to rise in the west.  

            Suddenly, a piercing thought-speak cry shot into my head, but then it stopped as quickly as it started.  Then, there was another, and another, until all I could hear were the pained shouts of about a dozen creatures.  

            "Ax?" Jake asked.  "Yahal?  Tobias"

            I looked around, and saw them in front of me.  They were fine, but Ax was shaking even more than normal.  His stalk eyes were rotating around and around.  He kept cocking his head, as if trying to hear something better.

            It's not an Andalite, Yahal announced.

            The One is absorbing people, Ax said quietly, his voice trembling.  That's what the cries are.  We're near him.  His voice rose to a near shriek as he finished.  He was shivering so much I was certain that he would collapse.

            "The Garatron?" Rachel guessed.  The last of the voices stopped.

            Must be, Tobias answered.

            "They're protecting him, though," Cassie objected.  "Why would The One absorb the things that are protecting him?"

            "He would if his gain would be greater by having their memories than it would by them just protecting him," I answered.  "He's pure evil, he doesn't care about them."

            Rachel nodded, automatically seeing what I meant.

            I see him, Tobias announced from a couple hundred feet above us.  Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar and three other Garatron are still there.  They look angry.

            "Well, yeah," I muttered.  "Ten or so of your best buds get absorbed by an evil being, you tend to get kind of cranky."

            "Which direction?" Jake questioned, none of the sadness from the day before in his voice.  He was our fearless leader again.

            About three hundred yards to the right, Tobias replied quickly.  Just behind those two trees.

            Before he could even finish, Rachel was running quietly to the Garatron and The One.  Jake was not far behind her, and I went, too.  Cassie, Jeanne, Tom, Yahal, Tobias, Toby, and the three Murkra followed us.  Only Ax stood behind, trembling.

            "Yo, Ax-man!" I called.  "C'mon!"

            Ax looked at me with all four eyes for a moment, shook for a moment longer, and then slumped.  Defeated, he followed us to go find The One.  However, he did not move before saying, I'm still hearing things behind us.

            I felt shivers run down my back.

            "You know what I've decided?" I asked.  "I've decided that if we survive this, I never want to see or talk to an all-powerful being again.  They just aren't fun.  Anyway, I'm pretty certain that my parents thought that defeating one evil alien race was enough for one lifetime."

            Everybody giggled the same nervous laugh we always had before a battle, the one we laughed not because something was funny, but because we were scared peeless.

            "Battle morphs, everyone," Jake commanded.  "Don't attack until I give the command, though."

            "Okay, Midget," Tom replied casually.  Bravery really did run in the Berenson family.  Stupid, reckless bravery in Rachel's case, maybe, but it was still bravery.

            "What is the plan after we morph?" Jeanne asked as dark spots appeared on her skin.

            "We're just going to–" Jake said, but then his mouth started growing fangs and changing shape.  We're just going to watch, see what we can learn about why The One absorbed some Garatron.  The morphs are just in case, so we don't get caught off guard, like yesterday, he said as his thought-speak kicked back in.  This time there was a definite quaver in his voice.

            We continued to talk and plan as we all changed into our animal forms.  Only the three Murkra, Toby, Tobias, Ax, and Yahal stayed in their normal forms.

            Perhaps we should stay back, this time? Captain Miaker offered.  That way, they will not attack.

            By now, The One and the Garatron have probably learned that we travel with the Murkra.  They will attack either way, Yahal countered.

            Lucky us, I mumbled as my gorilla morph completed.

            Come along anyway, Jake said, sighing.

            I smell them, Cassie commented, her talented wolf nose sniffing the air.

            Follow me, Tobias ordered, diving down toward us and then leading the way.

            I knuckle-walked along below him, as silent as I could be.  Hey, Bird-boy, I finally called to him in private thought-speak.  About how mean do those remaining four Garatron look?

            Why?  You scared? he asked back, only half laughing.

            No, I said, a little too quickly.

            Tobias started to laugh.  We're all scared.  You're lying.  And I don't like liars.

            You better watch it, I said grumpily.

            I think not, he said, still laughing.  I think it is you who should watch out.  You're the one standing below me.

            And with that, a small white blob of goo splatted onto the grass beside me.

            Man, Tobias, that was just nasty! I exclaimed, chuckling.

            Boys, boys, boys! Cassie jokingly reprimanded, walking up beside us.  Always fighting.  I expected better of you!  And bathroom humor is never a good thing.

            Now _you _are below me, Cassie, Tobias warned.  She immediately became quiet and dropped back a bit.  

Tobias and I both started giggling.  We may have been on our way to try and kick butt on a being that could kick _our _butt any day, but we were still laughing.  That was a good thing, at least.

Stop, Tobias suddenly said.  I looked ahead, and with my gorilla eyes I slightly made out the figures of four Garatron and another thing that kept flicking between the shapes of many different Garatron and many different Hork-Bajir.

The One.

I watched the scene playing out in front of us, hidden by the the brushes.

Youbetrayedme. Youtookmycrew. Whatdoyouthinkthatyouaredoing?! Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar howled at The One.

The One laughed evilly.  They were of no use to me, Captain.  And they were mine, not your crew.  You are mine.  You must obey me.  Otherwise, I will absorb you as well.

Youwillnotusemeandmypeoplelikethis.

The three other Garatron stood behind their Captain, uncertain.

Are you trying to betray me now as well, Captain? The One mocked.  You saw what happened to the others when they tried to leave.

Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar turned a deeper shade of blue, and his eyes narrowed in anger.  Youwillnotthreatenme.

Cassie gasped.  Is that what happened? she asked us in private thought-speak.  The Garatron rebelled against The One, and so he absorbed them?

It looks like it, Jake answered grimly.

I turned back to The One and Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar.

I will threaten you as I like, The One said menacingly.  With that, he leaped forward.  One of the Garatron standing behind Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar gave a terrified scream, and then crumpled.  The One seemed to become translucent for a moment, then he expanded.  The  victimized Garatron were shrouded in the cloud of mist that was The One.  Finally, the mist seemed to shrink down into the Garatron's body.  Finally, it disappeared, and the Garatron stood up, perfectly calm.  Then, it flickered.  It had been absorbed.

You will not question my actions anymore, Captain, The One said.  He whipped his newest Garatron tail forward, and Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar's stalk eye, the one Tobias had hurt before, fell to the ground.  The Captain gave a cry of pain, and clasped his hands over the stump that was already oozing bluish-green blood. 

Oh, my God, Cassie said in a stunned, quiet voice.  The rest of us were silent, too shocked by what we had just seen to say anything at all.

Ax jumped suddenly at the sound of the leaves rustling behind us.

I head something, he said weakly.

It was just the wind, Rachel said, her voice tense with anger.  She was obviously mad at Ax for his imagined bogeys and monsters lurking behind every corner.

However, she stopped talking quite suddenly, her nose in the air.

I looked around, trying to see what was wrong.  It was then with horrifying realization that I understood.

We were surrounded by Garatron.

A/N:  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW!  PLEASE!!!  There are only another two to three chapters left on this, and I would really, really, really, really like to get 261 reviews PLEASE!!!!!  That's only another, uh… *Counts*  Oh, forget this.  *Pulls out calculator*  Forty-nine reviews!  (Unless I get more before I post this chapter.)  So, PLEASE review!  I'll love you forever!  I swear!  Just please, review.  If I get 261, I could die happy.  Please!!!  *Gives puppy eyes to all readers*  Please? 


	21. Tobias

A/N:  Please, please, please review when you finish!  PLEASE!  And I hope you like this chapter!  Oh, and for those of you who read Fearless, something kind of funny is happening.  Yesterday, when I discovered Fearless fanfics on FFN, I was happy, because I figured that I could start doing "Conversations of a Deranged Gaia and Scary Guy" or something like that.  I announced it to all my friends who love that series, and they went psycho.  They seemed to think that I, hyper, happy-go-lucky, crazy Ax could not play Gaia if my life depended on it, and by doing a Conversations with her, I would ruin her.  Anyway, to prove to them that I could be as Gaia Moore-y as I wanted, I'm spending all of today acting like her.  Funfun, huh?  Lol.  Anyway, here's the chapter!  Please review!

Chapter 21

            Attack them, but leave the humans and Prince Aximili for me, The One said, his stolen features twisted into a disturbing smile.  He raised his hands, and suddenly my friends were in their normal bodies again.  Except for me.  I was in my human body.

            The Garatron surrounding us started to come forward.

            No! Hewilljustabsorbyou! Hedoesnotcareaboutus. Wherehaveourbrothersgone? Heabsorbedthem! Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar shrieked.

            Fool, The One growled.

            With that, The One swung at the Captain with the flat of his stolen tail blade, and hit the Captain in the head with the flat of the blade.  Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar crumpled without another word.

            I looked around with my dim human eyes.  Indi and his group of Hork-Bajir were hightailing it as fast as they could away from us.  I didn't blame them.

            The Garatron, who had been joined by the two that had been with The One and Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, hesitated, unsure of what to do.  Should they listen to their unconscious leader and disobey The One, risking his wrath?  Or listen to The One and hope for the best?

            Now! he exclaimed.  Now, before they have time to change their shapes again.

            Ax, my _shorm_, was quivering like a leaf.  He me my eyes with his main ones for a moment, his look terrified.

            One of the biggest, most pumped up Garatron gave us one final glance, but then turned to The One.  No, he said, and started to walk away slowly, an insult.  One by one, the other Garatron started to follow.

            Without a word, The One became translucent again, and within seconds, every single Garatron in the clearing had been absorbed, with the exception of Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar.

            Ax collapsed from fear, shivering on the ground.

            The One turned to face us.

            I groped the air beside me, trying to find Rachel's hand.  We were going to die.  Rachel was never going to make it back to earth to see her family, and I would never be able to return to my meadow and to see my mother.  We would never be able to grow old together.

            "Cassie…" Jake said.

            "I know," she answered.  "I know."

            Rachel appeared next to me.  "Well," she breathed shakily, "at least this time we can have a minute or two to say goodbye in person, right?"

            I am the servant of the People, Yahal started to say, bowing his head.  It was the Andalite death ritual.

            I am the servant of my prince, Ax said, joining Yahal.  Ax's voice was shaky, but defiant.  He was looking at Jake.

            I squeezed Rachel's hand, and started to say what I knew of the ritual with Yahal and Ax.  My father was, after all, an Andalite.

            "I am the servant of honor.  My life is not my own, when the People have need of it.  My life is given for the People, for my prince, and for my honor."

            I am the servant of honor.  My life is not my own, when the People have need of it.  My life is given for the People, for my prince, and for my honor.  Ax stood up, empowered by his small act of defiance.

            Toby was looking around at the sky, the trees, the grass, and the depths of Father Deep.

            We were cornered.  With a cliff behind us and The One and the unconscious form of Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar in front of us, and thick trees to either side, there was no way we could escape.  I realized that I was shaking.

            Tom started into nothing, his eyes glazed.  Whether it was from fear or something else, I didn't know.

            "Tobias," Rachel said, "I love you."

            "I love you, too," I said.  I'm sure that I was crying, somewhat.

            With that, we pulled each other close, and kissed.  In it were all the things that we had left unsaid:  All the bitterness, sadness, happiness, and love that we felt.  It was overwhelming.

            I pulled her closer, and she tightened her arms around me.

            It was our last act together.

            As we kissed each other goodbye, The One came closer, flickering between shapes.

            And as he loomed closer, he became translucent.


	22. Jake

A/N:  Here it is, the final chapter of The Carried!  Enjoy!  And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE review!  I only need another 26 reviews to make my goal!  Please!  But still, I only have this chapter, the sample chapter, and the thank-yous at the end to get reviews on, so pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, all reviews are welcome!  Please, I really, really, really want to get those 26 more reviews….  Thanks for all the ones I have already!  And for those of you that read about my brother before my mom made me delete it all, he's doing fine.  He has a concussion, skull fracture, and blood behind his eardrum, but he will eventually be fine.  PLEASE REVIEW!

Chapter 22

Suddenly, the One just ceased to exist.  Its stolen, translucent body disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I gripped Cassie's hand tightly, unsure of what to think.

"What happened?" Rachel demanded, pulling away from Tobias' embrace.

"I…  I don't know," I said, dazed.  

One moment before, I had been staring at the One, waiting for him to absorb me and all of my friends.  We had all heard Ax speak of being absorbed as living hell, and so we were all scared to death, not knowing how in the world we were going to get out of that one.  Cassie and I had simply looked at each other, smiled, and held hands, facing the inevitable.  I had felt my eyes stinging, and knew tears had been about to come.  

After everything we had all been through, Cassie and I had been looking forward to finally marrying and settling down, but it had looked like that would never happen.  When I had left earth, I had gone not caring whether I lived or died, but now I had cared very much.  I wanted to live.  I had squeezed Cassie's hand tighter, and she had squeezed back.  We had known that there was no way out.  The One had been only about five feet in front of us, when it suddenly disappeared.  And we were left here, untouched.

I pulled Cassie in close, and we hugged.  We had survived!  I knew better than to celebrate prematurely, though. Three years at war with the Yeerks had taught me that.

"Where did it go?" Marco asked, always the calculating one.  "It had us cold.  It knew that we could not get away.  Why did it disappear all of a sudden?"

I shrugged, and looked searchingly at the rest of my friends.  "I just don't know.  What were all of you doing when the One disappeared?"

"Nothing," Marco answered, seriously for once, "I was just remembering.  I wanted to remember everything."

I was performing the death ritual, Prince Jake, Ax told me, his voice surprisingly calm.  Yahal said that he had been doing the same.

"Jake, you and I were just holding hands and waiting," Cassie said to me.  I nodded.

"I was asking myself what I thought death would be like," Tom told me.

Jeanne simply answered, "I was praying."

"Toby?  Tobias?  Rachel?  What about you?"

"I was saying goodbye to the world," replied Toby.  

"I was saying goodbye to Rachel…" Tobias said, his human face showing emotion for once in that he was blushing deeply.

We all looked at him expectantly.  There was an awkward silence for a moment.

"We kissed each other goodbye, okay?" Rachel exclaimed, sounding annoyed that we were prying so much into their "last" moments.

"What do you think, Ax?" I asked him.  He knew the most about the One, having been absorbed by him for nearly a year, even if he was scared stiff.

I do not know, Prince Jake.  I can only guess.  I do not have sufficient infor-

"Your guess is better than mine, and your guesses are always good.  Just tell us what you guess," I said crossly, trying to learn if we were about to be attacked again or if he was gone for good.

Kissing is something that humans do when they care deeply for one another, true? Ax asked, his voice tight.  I still noticed that he did not sound nearly as scared, though.  I was very confused.

Rachel was now almost as pink as Tobias, although I do not know how much was from anger and how much from embarrassment.  "Yes, it is," she said, rolling her eyes.

Then, I believe, seeing such an extreme gesture of love must have shocked the One.  It is my belief that he has never witnessed love between two people before.  He has seen people who love other people, but never an expression of love.  He is pure evil, and seeing something so not evil might have even destroyed him, Ax answered jubilantly.

"He's gone?" I asked hollowly.

Possibly.  It is most likely that he was extremely hurt, though.  One or the other.  Evil cannot exist in the face of love, from what I learned during my time being absorbed in him.

Tobias smiled and took Rachel's hand.  

Rachel said, "Now that is too awesome.  We kicked butt on the most evil guy in this galaxy because Tobias and I like each other?  Sweet.  And just think, he would still be here if it weren't for the fact that my wonderful best friend Cassie here hadn't exploded her spaceship."  She was grinning madly.

My spaceship, Yahal corrected her, lowering his stalk eyes.  It was a beautiful ship.  His voice cracked.

Cassie smiled, celebrating the moment with us, but then her face fell.  She was quiet for a moment, but then murmured, "'The six of your fates are entwined for all time; five of you are not whole without the sixth.  What you did may not have been good, but it was needed.'  That's what he said.  It's coming true!  Rachel was needed.  To destroy the One."  She became quiet and still, deep in her own thoughts.

            "Cassie?" I asked.  

She continued to stare into space.  

"Cassie!"  I snapped my fingers in front of her face, and she jumped.  She looked at me, her eyes finally focusing.  "What were you saying?" I questioned.  It had sounded important.

"What the Ellimist told me."

"What?" Marco asked, confused.

"On the Iskoort homeworld, he said that to me.  Only to me, the rest of you were frozen in time," she answered quietly.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Marco demanded.

I came to Cassie's defense.  "If the Ellimist only spoke to her, he probably had a good reason for not saying anything to the rest of us.  What she did was fine."

Ax nodded his head in agreement.  Yes.  The Ellimist is a trickster, and we should not trust him anyway.

Rachel turned to Cassie.  "Okay, so what exactly did the Ellimist say?  What was he talking about?"

"I asked him if it was right that we brought you back.  He said that he did not know if it was good, but that it was needed because our fates were tied together," she answered.

Tobias started to say something, but just then something appeared.  It was dark green, with lighter green lining around the eyes and mouth.  Its skin was wrinkled like a prune.  It had a stubby tail, and was about my own height.

"Drode," Rachel accused.

The alien that we knew as Drode, Crayak's intergalactic helper, smiled at her.  He spoke, his voice sarcastic.  "Thank you, thank you, oh wonderful Animorphs.  My master Crayak wishes that I send you his gratitude from the very–" he paused, grinning maliciously, "–bottom of his heart.  By destroying the One, you destroyed his one major obstacle to becoming more powerful than even Ellimist.  Thank you, for ridding him of his little problem."  Drode went into an exaggerated bow, cackled, and disappeared from our sight.

"Oh, no," Marco said.  "That is not good.  That is very not good."

A/N:  Well, that's it!  The next book is called The Unbeatable, and it should be out soon!  Come check under my penname every once and a while and maybe it will be out!  I'll email you when I post it, as well.  Come see what happens with the Animorphs, Crayak, the Garatron, the Iskoort, and all the other free races in the universe; the happenings will surprise you, I promise.  Thank you, all my readers and reviewers.  I really appreciate it!  Please R/R!  Oh, and the sample chapter is posted as the next chapter.


	23. Sample Chapter for Book #57

A/N:  Please, please, please, please review!

Book 57 – The Unbeatable

            The entire world around me was black, pressing in.  I felt like I was suffocating.  

There was no air!  I clawed in front of me, trying to break through the suffocating darkness.  I was shaking, unable to stand the closed in space.

I could see nothing, nothing but the darkness.  The air around me was warm, moist, and heavy.  It smelled sickeningly fragrant, like rotting fruit.  There were no noises.  The silence itself was enough to drive me insane.

Slowly I started morphing grizzly, hoping it could take care of whatever dangers lie in the darkness.  I wished I could see something, but there was not a single photon of light for me to see by.

 Tobias? I called out.  Cassie?  Jake?  Marco?  Ax?

No one answered.

Hello?  Anybody? I asked, trying not to think of the images I was seeing of myself being buried in the darkness, suffocating, buried alive…

_Stop it_, I commanded of myself.  _You won't be buried alive.  You're fine._

_There's no room!  I'm closed in, and the darkness is all around me!  I can't get out.  I can't get out_, the panicking part of myself screamed to the logical part.  _Buried alive…_

And suddenly, I wasn't alone anymore.

There was a rat on the floor in front of me.  It almost seemed to be putting off light, just enough so that I could see it clearly.

Hello, Rachel, it said.

I recognized that voice.  I would recognize it anywhere.  It was David.

About a year into the Yeerk war, a new kid found the blue morphing cube.  Visser Three/One found out, and came to get it.  David's house was destroyed, and his parents became Controllers.  We could either leave him to become a Controller, or make him one of us.  We made the wrong choice.

After he got the morphing power, David tried to betray us.  First, by almost selling us out to Visser Three/One, later by trying to kill us.  We finally got rid of him by trapping him in rat morph and placing him on a small, deserted, rocky island in the middle of the ocean.

David, I hissed.  I reared up to my full height, hoping he could see me in the stifling darkness as I could see him.  How was he here?  He should have been dead…

The rat started to laugh.  However, his voice did not seem like his own.  It was too loud, too… surrounding.

Who are you? I demanded, afraid to hear the answer I already knew.

You don't recognize me? the rat asked.  It started to change, growing, morphing rapidly.  Within seconds, it had stopped changing, and my answer was confirmed.

It was Crayak.

I see that you realize who I am, now, he sneered.  You should have realized that I could not be David.  He's dead.  Rats only live for about five years.  It's already been three and a half since the war ended.  Five and a half years since he became a _nothlit _as an already adult rat.

What do you want? I asked, demorphing.  None of my morphs could so much as scratch him.  "And why did you come, instead of sending that pile of dog poop called Drode?"

Me?  I want nothing, he answered.

"Then why are you here?"

You were my favorite Animorph, Rachel, Crayak said, ignoring my last comment.

I was annoyed, to say the least.  Who was he to think that he could just butt into our lives, manipulate the universe, and torture me like this?  I wanted – no, needed – open air, to feel unrestricted.  It unnerved me to be like this, in the dark, buried…

The One is gone, and now I can take back my galaxy.  I have waited for this day for millennia.  Not even that fool Ellimist can stop me now.  And, because of that, I no longer must stick to the imbecilic rules of our game.  I can directly interfere.  And now that is what I am doing.  You turned me down, Rachel, the last time we met.  And I do not easily forgive such an insult.

I clenched my fists, trying to hold myself back from jumping him, an all-powerful being, as a human.  What was this new game he was playing with himself?

Your cousin Jake has insulted me even more, though, Crayak whispered in as silky a tone as he could muster.  I want him gone.  And as much as I wish it were some other way, Rachel, you are the only one who could possibly help me.  You could get rid of him for me, Rachel.  I will give you some time to think about it.

With that, he disappeared, and I was left alone in the darkness.

Alone.

There were so many thoughts flying through my head.  He wanted me to rid him of Jake.  I couldn't do that, though.  Not ever.  And not even Ellimist could stop Crayak now.

Oh, and David was definitely dead.  I shivered.  Yes, I had hated David with a passion, but he had only been fourteen when it all happened…

How could I get back to my friends?

Where _were _my friends, anyway?

Why didn't Crayak just kill Jake himself, if he didn't have to play by the rules of Ellimist anymore?

Why was I asking myself so many rhetorical questions, anyway?

As thoughts continued to race through my head, the darkness pressed in all around me.  With each passing moment in the stifling blackness, I became more terrified.  I finally simply collapsed into a trembling heap on the ground.

A/N:  Please review!  And in case you don't remember, I'm not making it up about Rachel being claustrophobic.  It was a big part of books 17 and 27, and a minor part of 48 at the end.  Anyway, The Unbeatable will soon be coming to a FanFiction.Net near you!  *grins*  Please review!  And all my thank-yous are posted as the next chapter.


	24. Thanks to all the readers/reviewers!

Alright, these are just the thank-yous from this entire story…  Thanks to all who reviewed, I love all of you.  Because of you, I feel so much more confident about myself and my writing, and I am in third place for most reviews of any Anific on this entire site.  Thank you so much!  Here are the personal thank yous:

Katelyn (Cassie the Crazy Band Child):  Thanks for the, uh, lovely advice…  I realize that you never read my story because you don't care about Animorphs, but it made me laugh.  Thanks!

Shawna (Ami of Destiny):  Thank you, you've been one of my biggest supporters from the very beginning.  You reviewed almost every chapter, and you helped me with research, ideas, etc.  On top of all that, you have been a great friend.  Thank you!

Vy (The Wandering Blue Andalite):  You have reviewed every chapter, supported me when I needed it, talked to me online, been a great friend, and helped me with research.  You have, in whole, been awesome to me.  Thank you so much for everything!

Seven Stones:  Thank you for the reviews and feedback!  It meant a lot!

Emily (Anifan1):  I'm so sorry that Tom hasn't had as big of a part in this book, but thank you for the reviews anyway!  He will definitely have a larger part in the next book.  And good luck with Beth…

Echoes of the Mind:  Thank you so much!  You reviewed every single chapter, and it meant so much.

Glittering Pegasus:  Thank you!  And I think that its cool that you wanted to advertise, it's always fine, I think.  The review made me so happy, thank you!

Elfangor19:  Thank you so much!  You've been such a great reader, and I'm sure everybody loved you when you reviewed so many times in order to get me to post chapter 6!

Cassie (morpherkidvb):  You've reviewed, critiqued, laughed, and cried over my fic, and I thank you for it.  You also helped me when I needed it, and it has meant a lot.

Chava:  Thank you for pointing out my mistake, and for the great review!

Moi:  Thanks!  And I did put more.

Matthew Alphonso:  You did not review very much, but you have IMed me and given me advice.  Thank you!

Cassi (Lady Lupin):  Thanks for the advice, research, and everything.  We have had so much fun teasing each other about how slow we are, and not posting until the other does, etc.  Thanks!

Amber:  I don't know how many of you there are, but this is to all of you that are not the Amber whose email is princesszeldaus@yahoo.com.  Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews and feedback, it's meant a lot, no matter how confusing it's been!

Amber (the one whose email is princesszeldaus@yahoo.com):  Thank you for giving your email when I asked, for all the great reviews and praise, and for sticking with the fic.  It's meant a lot.

J-Rae:  Thank you so much!  You're reviews have always been long and nice, so it's been lovely to have you as a reviewer.

Hanni B:  Thank you for the ideas, moral support, reviews, and chatting time.  Thanks, it's been great.

Lilygirl2001:  Thanks for the review!

Nydia (Aidyn Elcrom):  I know you won't read this, but thanks for the review, even if you have no idea what my story is about!  See you at school!

AniWriter:  Thank you for the review, and for urging the others to review!  Your words meant a lot.

Someone… :  Thank you for saying that this was a good fic, and I'm sorry that I was asking for fifty reviews when you read it.  I was in the middle of a major writer's block, and couldn't figure out what to write.  I don't think that I am the first to have made a minimum amount of reviews to get before posting, so I don't know, but I'm sorry.  I hope you still kept reading.

Nicole:  You've been a great friend and a great reviewer.  Need I say more?  It's meant a lot, so thank you.

Spunkie-girl:  Thanks for all the marvelous reviews!  They've meant so much!

CYBER HAWK:  The best you have ever read, huh?  Well, thank you so much!  Your reviews are always so enthusiastic, so thank you!

LadyBianca:  Yes, I do agree that it's about time that they got married!  Well, thank you for the review!

Shorlixa Dragoness-Spirit:  Thank you for the many great reviews!  It's meant a lot.

Andrei:  Thank you!  I do enjoy the serene scenes, and I like description.  Thank you for the wonderful review, it really made me smile.

Kat:  Thank you very much!

Aquion-Aldrea-Corrass:  If you thought that it was so unbelievable, why did you keep reading for so long?

Alexia Goddess:  I'm a genius?  Well, thank you so much!  I've never been called that before!  A dumb blonde, yes, quite often, but never a genius…  Thank you so much!

Garfish:  Thank you!

Marlene Kimaru:  Well, thank you very much!  I still can't believe I have over one hundred, much less two hundred, reviews!

SouthrnBelle:  Thank you for finally deciding to read it!  I'm so glad that you liked it!

Flying:  Yes, R/T definitely are an awesome couple, are they not?  I love R/T mush!

Angelofcloud9:  Thanks for the many reviews!  They mean more than you could ever know!

Bob:  Don't worry, I will definitely keep writing.  Thanks!

(no name):  Better even than your own?  Well thank you so much!  I wasn't expecting that!  Thanks for the great review!

Takeruto:  Thank you, and don't worry – I'm going to continue.

Jason:  Well, if you can get a hold of KAA and have her read this story, I would be honored.  LOL!  Anyway, thanks for all the encouragement.  You even offered to finish it yourself when I was sick and busy and such and you thought that I would not finish.  Thank you!  I was so touched when I read that email!

KittenGirl555:  Thank you so much for the reviews, for the assurance that Sandra wasn't a Mary Sue, and your confidence in this story.  Also, the way you nicely told me my errors was great.  Thank you!  Also, you yourself are an awesome writer.

Toshihiro:  Well, thank you very much!  Believe me, I wish I could get KAA to read this…  *Sighs and goes off into dream world of KAA reading this fic*

Christina:  Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, support, and online conversations.  Don't worry, when you start writing, you will do fine.  Good luck, and thank you!

Sategev Ellyne:  Thank you!  And yes, I cried, too.  I couldn't stop crying for almost a week after I finished the book.  I cried myself to sleep every night for months afterward, until I found FFN.  Thank you, your reviews meant so much.

Eternitys Chik:  Thank you so much for the reviews and for offering to link to this on your site!  It means so much!

Jake Barenson:  I'm sorry for torturing you so much that one time when Lady Lupin and I were fighting over posting chapters…  But thank you for all the reviews and everything!  It's meant a lot!

Lara (mickEmousina):  Thank you so much for not only reviewing, but becoming my first beta!  It means so much!  Thanks!

Phoenix-sol:  Thank you for reviewing every chapter!  Most people don't do that…  It meant so much that you did!  Thank you!


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